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empreinte. 

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illustrent  la  m6thode. 


1 

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//^3. 


DISCOVERY    OF    AMERICA    BY    NORTHMEN 


ADDRESS 

3[t  tlje  ainbEiUng 


THE   STATUE  OF   LEIF   ERIKSEN 


J 


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DISCOVERY    OF    AMERICA    BY   NORTHMEN 


ADDRESS 

at  tl)e  anbetUng 

or 

THE    STATUE    OF    LEIF    ERIKSEN 

delivered  in  faaec'il  hall 
Oct.  29,  1887 


BY 


EBEN   NORTON    HORSFORD 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 

GTbc  QibrrsiOt  JPrcoa,  QDamititsr 

1888 


!    - 


iniiitjcraltg  llrcss : 
John  Wilson   and  Fon,  Cami'bipgf. 


PREFACE. 


'■-, 


'T^HE  address  delivered  in  Fancuil  Hall  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  Unveiling  of  the  Statue  to  Leif 
Eriksen  has  been  revised,  and  there  have  been  added  to 
it,  in  the  interest  of  the  reader,  several  maps  and  illus- 
trations that  may  help  to  fulfil  the  object  I  had  in  view, 
—  a  justification  of  the  monument  to  Leif  in  Boston. 
The  matter  omitted  at  the  delivery,  for  want  of  time, 
has  found  its  place  in  these  pages.  I  have  attempted 
to  present  in  the  address  the  essential  story  of  the  dis- 
covery of  America  by  the  Northmen,  omitting  only  the 
matters  which  properly  enough  may  appear  in  an  ac- 
count of  the  life  and  usages  of  the  people,  but  which 
do  not  so  immediately  concern  the  strict  history  of  the 
Discovery  of  America. 

In  the  Appendix  I  have  printed  some  notes :  and, 
that  the  reader  might  have  the  principal  sources  of  the 
Saga  lore  before  him,  I  have  added  the  larger  part  of 
[oshua  Toulmain  Smith's  version  (1842)  of  the  Saga 
ol  iMrek  the  Red,  with  occasional  parallel  passages  from 
Beamish';  translation,  and  extracts  from  Thorfinn's  Saga, 
and  also  the  three  "pieces"  (Thdttir)  interpolated  into 


VI 


the  life  of  Claf  Tryggvason,  which  are  embraced  in  the 
paper  of  J.  Eliot  Cabot. 

A  subsequent  paper  will  discuss  the  Landfall  of  the 
Northmen,  and  the  site  of  the  houses  built  by  Leif  and 
occupied  by  him,  Thorwald,  and  Thorfinn,  and  where, 
after  additions  by  Thorfinn,  the  son  Snorri  was  born. 

I  find  no  evidence  of  thgrc  having  been  any  build- 
ings erected  by  the  early  Northmen  on  the  south  side 
of  the  peninsula  of  Cape  Cod,  or  on  the  shores  of  Nar- 
ragansett  I3ay. 


E.  N.  H. 


Cambridge,  March  i, 


CONTENTS. 


rAOB 

Address 9 

Appendix  A.  —  Dighton  Rock 65 

"  13.  —  Latitude  of  Vinland 65 

"  C  — ANDRit   TlIEVET 81 

"          D.  — Wood's  Hoi.l 83 

"          E.  —  Indian  Corn  iound  growing  in  Vinland  .    .  84 

Saga  of  Eirek  the  Red 89 

Saga  of  Tiiorfinn 97 

Thxttir  Eirek's  Rauda  and  Graenlendinga  Tiiatt.    Caeot  705 


ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS. 


KUu0trations. 

PAGI 

Statue  OF  Leif  Eriksen. Frontispiece 

Runic  Inscriptions  on  Stone  in  the  Island  of  Kingiktorsuak  ii 

Ruins  of  a  Chiuch  at  Gardar '* 

DiGHTON  Rock,  Massachusetts 24 

MiLLsnoRO  Rock,  Pennsylvania *S 

Mill  at  Chesterton,  England »6 

Tower  at  Newport *" 

Finn  Magnusen's  Chart ^7 

Fac-simile  of  a  Page  from  the  Saga  of  Eirek  the  Red: 

Codex  Flateyensis ^9 

The  North  Atlantic 9 

Fog  belt  (Hydrographical  Bureau) 3' 

Bass  Harbor,  Mount  Desert 3* 

The  North  Atlantic,  1570,  by  Sigurd  Stephanius    .    .     •     •  37 

Ruysch's  Map,  1507 39 

Map  of  Hieronymus  Verrazano,  1529  (Rev.  Dr.  De  Costa)  .  40 

"     "    Michael  Lok,  1582 4^ 

Meriam's  Map 47 

Map  of  Verrazano  (Maiollo) 48 

Nolin's  Map S' 

Rare  Map  in  Possession  of  S.  L.  M.  Barlow S4 

Behaim's  Map,  with  Additions,  1492 60 

Leuthner's  Map  of  Labrador 69 

Henderson's  Map  of  Iceland 75 

McNTANUs's  Map,  167  i 83 


■Xi 


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*•"    ^.\    fix,  jifV^  "^^A,      c^^ 


i.i^^i,,iMii^,km 


LEIF    ERIK  SEN. 


I. 


"Xlt/HAT  is  there  to  justify  a  monument  to  Leif 
Eriksen  in  Boston  ? 
It  may  he  said  in  reply  at  the  outset,  that  it  is  obvious 
that  if  Leif,  eight  hundred  and  eighty-seven  years  ago, 
Irnded  on  the  continent  of  America  anywhere  southwest 
of  Greenland,  a  monument  to  his  memory  might  properly 
be  set  up  wherever  it  would  be  seen  and  appreciated. 
The  special  fitness  of  a  memorial  in  Boston  may  become 
equally  obvious. 

In  the  service  with  which  I  have  been  intrusted, 
I  desire  to  place  before  you,  as  far  as  I  may,  the  prin- 
cipal considerations  upon  which  a  sound  judgment  may 
be  based.  To  sustain  me  in  this,  I  solicit  your  co- 
operation. You  will  add  not  a  litde  to  the  chances  of 
my  making  the  discussion  of  the  subject  worthy  of  your 
attention,  if  you  will  be  kind  enough  to  hold  before 
your  mind's  eye,  now  for  a  moment,  any  familiar  map 
of  North  America.  Look  at  the  east  coast.  From 
Greenland,  along  the  line  to  the  southwest,  you  will 
notice  three  projections  into  the  sea.  They  are  New- 
foundland, Nova  Scotia,  and  Cape  Cod.     Newfoundland 


lO 

is  bold,  rocky,  mountainous,  of  meagre  vegetation,  and 
with  few  beaches.  The  other  two,  Nova  Scotia  and 
Cape  Cod,  are  without  mountains,  wooded,  and  skirted 
by  extended  white-sand  beaches.  The  first  may  thus 
be  easily  distinguished  by  the  navigator  from  the  other 
two.  Look  at  their  relative  distances  apart.  They  arc 
about  as  two  to  three  to  si.\;  that  is,  if  you  could  sail 
with  a  fair  wind  from  Cape  Cod  to  Nova  Scotia  in  two 
days,  it  would  take  about  three  days,  with  the  same 
wind,  to  go  on  to  tlie  southern  headlands  of  Newfound- 
land ;  and,  having  coursed  along  Newfoundland  to  Belle 
Isle,  it  would  take  you  six  days  more  to  reach  Green- 
land. A  more  violent  wind  on  the  last  section  might 
reduce  the  time  to  four  days.  Remember  the  three 
points,  —  Newfoundland  and  Nova  Scotia  and  Cape 
Cod. 

There  are,  as  we  all  know,  Danish  people  now  living 
in  Greenland ;  Arctic  explorers  and  whalers  share  their 
hospitality.  Authentic  history  tells  us  of  extensive  set- 
tlements of  Scandinavians  who  went  there  from  Iceland 
as  early  as  the  tenth  century,  —  indeed  Greenland  would 
appear  to  have  been  discovered  toward  the  close  of  the 
ninth  century,  —  and  that  by  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  the  plague  and  war  had  quite  blotted 
them  out.  The  Danes  now  living  there  are  of  more 
recent  times.  They  entered  upon  the  abandoned  settle- 
ments of  the  earlier  colonists. 

As  evidence  that  Northmen  long  ago  occupied  Green- 
land, there  is,  on  an  island  not  far  from  and  to  the  north 
of  Disco  on    the  west   coast  of  Greenland,  in    latitude 


vl 


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II 


73°. — you  may  see  it  to-day, —  a  mass  of  rock  covered 
with  inscriptions  in  characters  which  belong  to  these 
people    of    the   North.     These    inscriptions    have    been 


Runic  Inscriptions  on  Stone  in  the  Island  of  Kingiittorsoak. 

deciphered.  Their  date  is  1135.  Numerous  similar 
columns,  with  like  inscriptions,  are  found  in  Norway  and 
Sweden.  Research  has  proved  them  all  to  be  of  com- 
mon  origin. 

At  Gardar,  on  one  of  the  bays  of  southern  Green- 
land, there  are  yet  standing  the  walls  of  a  massive  stone 
church,  which,  in  common  with  the  entire  Greenland 
coast,  has  sunk  to  a  lower  level  (in  keeping,  as  the 
geologists  tell  us,  with  the  rise  of  the  coast  of  Norway), 
until  its  foundations  are  now  below  the  level  of  the  sea. 
There  are  remains  of  other  churches,  and  also  inscrip- 
tions both  in  Runic  and  Latin.  At  one  time  there  were 
not  less  than  two  hundred  and  eighty  distinct  settlements 
in  southern  Greenland. 

Of  the  bishop  who  first  ruled  in  church  matters  over 
the  people  worshipping  in  these  ancient  edifices,  we  have 
authentic    records   in    the   Catholic    Church.      Not   only 


13 

of  him,  Bishop  Upsi,  who  was  sent  out  to  Greenland 
and  also  to  Vinland  in  1121,  but  of  at  least  eighteen 
other  bishops  are  there  records  preserved  in  the  Ice- 
landic Church  Annals.  Dishop  Eric  Upsi  heads  the 
list.  The  Bishopric  of  Gardar  was  occupied  from  11 21 
to  1537.  This  is  a  clear  and  distinct  recognition  of  set- 
tlements in  Vinland,  the  portion  of  America  where  the 


Ruins  of  a  Church  at  Gardar, 


/■ 


Northmen  claim  to  have  made  their  earliest  sctUements, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century. 

The  Icelandic  records  that  make  certain  mention  of 
Bishop  Upsi  are  of  three  classes,  as  Rafn,  the  Danish 
writer,  informs  us.  There  are  the  Annals  of  the  Kings, 
which  refer  to  the  parent  country;  there  arc  the 
Church  Icelandic  Annals;  and  lastly,  the  Annals  of  the 
Loegmen,  or  governors  of  Iceland.  They  all  refer  to 
Bishop  Eric  Upsi,  sometimes  to  him  as  Bishop  Eric. 
The  Catholic  Church  records  mention  him  as  the 
earliest  of  American  bishops.  The  records  tell  us 
further  that  the  tribute  to  the  Pope  from  the  colonies 
over  which  these  bishops   presided,  besides  the  Peter's 


13 

Pence,  amounted  to  twenty-six  hundred  pounds  of  wal- 
rus-teeth annually.  They  gave  of  what  they  had.  Who 
may  estimate  the  shrines  and  images  to  which  this 
Arctic  ivory  contributed  ? 

These  Icelandic  records  are  a  part  of  a  vast  body 
of  literature,  of  which  Professor  Fiskc,  late  of  Cornell 
University,  the  first  of  American  Icelandic  scholars, 
says :  "  All  the  literature  of  this  period  in  all  the  other 
Teutonic  dialects  of  Europe  [and  he  includes  the  Old 
High  German]  is  but  a  drop  to  a  bucket  of  water  com- 
pared with  that  of  Iceland."  If  you  would  form  some 
idea  of  how  much  of  it  one  man  may  become  acquainted 
with,  in  the  treatment  of  one  theme  only,  look  at  the 
table  of  manuscripts  and  books  which  Paul  Riant  con- 
sulted in  the  preparation  of  his  "  Expeditions  and  Pil- 
grimages of  the  Scandinavians  at  the  time  of  the 
Crusades."  The  titles  alone  of  the  works  cited  cover 
fifty  royal  octavo  pages. 

Why  should  you  confide  in  these  records?     This  is 
a  legitimate  inquiry.     I  will  try  to  answer  it. 


II. 


In  the  rise  of  men  from  barbarism,  the  step  that 
may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  -significant  is  that 
which  gives  them  pride  in  personal  achievement.  Out 
of  this  pride  come  the  story-tellers,  the  bards,  the  min- 
strels. Out  of  this  come  pride  of  family,  pride  in 
ancestry,  and  much   besides  of  factors  in  civilization. 


14 

The  man  of  ready  and  retentive  memory,  the  nar- 
rator, if  a  man  of  character,  comes  to  be  trusted  with 
family  records,  genealogies,  titles  to  lands,  and  the  his- 
tory of  important  events.  He  is  the  custodian  of  the 
laws  and  precedents  of  his  times,  as  well  as  the  friend 
and  counsellor  of  kings  and  the  chronicler  of  dynasties 
and  of  wars.  In  the  progress  of  civilization,  this  man 
of  memory  precedes  the  writer  of  history. 

This  professional  chronicler  may  be  traced  back  to 
Bible  times ;  but  you  may  see  the  mode  of  his  training 
and  witness  his  accomjilishment  to-day.  The  Zuni  In- 
dians in  New  Mexico,  studied  so  carefully,  so  long,  and 
with  such  measureless  self-sacrifice  by  Mr.  Gushing,  have 
a  priesthood  set  apart  for  this  particular  purpose.  I  have 
heard  members  of  this  priesthood,  on  several  occasions, 
recite  stories  made  as  settings  to  moral  precepts  or  to 
phenomena  in  natural  history.  I  have  heard  a  given 
story  three  times  repeated,  — as  it  seemed  to  me,  and 
as  Mr.  Gushing  assured  me  it  was,  — absolutely  without 
variation.  Of  one  relation  to  which  I  listened,  and 
which  with  its  concurrent  translation  lasted  nearly  three 
hours,  Mr.  Gushing  said  that  he  had  heard  it  several 
times  before,  on  public  or  festive  occasions,  and  that 
there  had  not  been  the  variation  of  a  word.  Mr.  Gush- 
ing has  heard  a  story,  of  much  length  and  at  different 
times,  by  two  relators,  and  without  concert;  and  their 
performances  were  like  an  utterance  and  its  echo. 

Now,  these  persons  are  so  carefully  trained  to  repeat 
what  they  hear,  and  from  an  age  so  early,  that  a  boy 
of   twelve   years   may   be   sent   as  a   spy   to   a  distant 


f 

I 


15 

tribe,  to  listen  for  clays  to  the  conversations  going  on 
about  him,  and  to  bring  home,  word  for  word,  what  he 
has  heard.  The  accomplishment  of  such  persons  in 
this  direction  becomes  very  great.  It  seems  almost 
marvellous,  but  we  have  well-known  examples  of  it. 
Beaconsficld  was  once  upbraided  for  usir.g  the  memorial 
address  of  another,  which,  having  read,  he  retained  in  his 
memory  without  efTort,  and  later  reproduced  it,  oblivious 
of  its  having  been  first  pronounced  by  some  one  else. 
The  story  of  Walter  Scott's  recalling  to  the  Ettrick 
Shepherd  a  poem  read  only  once,  and  many  years  be- 
fore, is  a  familiar  case  of  this  word-memory.  There 
are  persons  who,  hearing  read  but  once  a  written  or 
a  printed  page,  retain  and  can  later  recite  it  word  for 
word.  Indeed,  many  pages  are  sometimes  so  retained 
and  recited.  It  is  not  inconceivable,  therefore,  that  the 
story-tellers,  the  Saga-men,  set  apart  for  this  purpose,  be- 
came highly  accomplished.  The  astonishing  feature  is 
the  accuracy  to  which  they  attained.  For  this  they 
were  consecrated.  I  noticed  that  the  old  Zuni  priest 
to  whom  I  listened,  spent  much  of  his  time  in  prayer. 
While  he  and  his  companions  were  last  year  sharing 
the  bounty  of  Mrs.  Hemenway,  at  P.Ianchester-by-the-Sea, 
that  Mr.  Gushing  might  take  down  and  preserve  the 
literature  which  they  possessed,  three  times  every  day 
these  devout  men  went  to  the  sea-shore  to  pray. 

The  successive  priests  are  the  heirs,  word  for  word, 
to  the  acquisitions  and  relations  of  their  predecessors. 

Such  men  held  the  literature  of  Scandinavia,  —  the 
family  histories,  the  romances,  the  songs,  the  annals,  the 


i6 


t 


voyages  of  discovery,  the  wars,  the  conquests ;  and  as  Mr. 
Ciisliing  took  down  the  relations  of  the  Zuni  priests,  so 
the  early  bishops  and  governors  took  down  in  Icelandic 
the  relations  of  the  Skalds  and  the  Saga-men  of  Iceland. 

The  relations  of  these  men  were  in  the  vernacular; 
and  you  may  see  that,  pronounced  in  the  presence  of  the 
kings  and  the  people,  had  they  been  otherwise  than  true 
they  would  have  been  fulsome  and  offensive,  —  "  mockery, 
and  not  praise,"  as  Snorro  Sturlcson  says. 

Such  writing,  like  the  writing  of  scientific  or  literary 
men  of  to-day,  may  carry  internal  evidence  of  its  trust- 
worthiness. 

We  are  accustomed  to  refer  to  the  internal  evidence 
of  the  truthfulness  of  certain  precious  books  familiar  to 
us  all.  Mr.  Henry  Mitchell,  of  the  Coast  Survey,  says  in 
a  manuscript,  which  I  have  been  permitted  to  read  and 
to  rite:  "In  overhauling  these  Icelandic  narratives,  I  am 
impressed  with  their  simple,  matter-of-fact  style,  which 
indicates  that  all  the  merit  of  the  comjiosition  was  ex- 
pected to  lie  in  the  truth  of  the  statements.  They  do 
not  sound  like  sailors'  yarns,  but  often  like  extracts  from 
a  ship's  log." 

Those  Sagas  gave  the  story  which  has  brought  us 
together  to-day. 

The  essential  thing  for  which  our  Scandinavian  kins- 
men,  the  citizens  of  the  West,  as  well  as  of  New  England, 
have  given  their  effort,  and  for  which  Miss  Whitney's 
beautiful  statue  has  been  conceived  and  wrought  and  set 
up,  is  to  commemorate  the  discovery  of  the  continent 
of  America  by  the  Northmen,  in  the  year  looo. 


iS 


4 


"4 


f 


«7 

The  question  may  be  asked  if  this  be  a  reality.  It 
rests  in  part  on  the  trustwortliiness  of  the  Sagas,  and  in 
part  on  other  evidence  which  will  be  presented  to  yon. 

Let  me  give,  in  a  few  words,  what  has  been  said  by 
men  whose  names  arc  familiar  to  us  all. 

Uakon  Noi<i)i.;NSK.roi.i),  of  Stockhohn,  a  man  still  in 
active  life,  who  sailed,  as  we  all  remember,  from  the  North 
Cape  through  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  Bch ring's  Straits 
into  the  Northern  Pacific,  .says,  in  a  recent  letter:  "Of 
so  much  are  we  fully  assured,  —  that  the  principal  facts 
stated  in  the  simple  narrative  of  tl-.c  Sagas  can  be  en- 
tirely relied  upon.  The  Northmen  made  numerous  long 
voyages  out  from  Greenland  for  centuries  [the  historical 
records  give  a  period  of  over  three  hundred  years],  and 
established  colonies  on  the  American  continent." 

The  late  Mr.  Hknry  VVheaton,  the  writer  on  Inter- 
national Law,  for  twelve  years  our  charge  d'affaires  at  the 
Court  of  Denmark,  where  his  time  was  largely  devoted 
to  the  study  of  Icelandic  literature  and  the  society  of  the 
learned  men  of  the  Danish  capital,  and  where  he  wrote 
"  The  History  of  the  Northmen,"  accepted  the  accounts 
of  the  discovery  of  the  American  continent  and  its  colo- 
nization  by  Scandinavians,  as  established  history. 

Mr.  Wheaton  was  afterwards  for  elc\en  years  our 
Minister  at  Berlin,  the  companion  and  friend  of  Mum- 
boldt.  This  great  critic  of  geographical  history,  Ai.ex- 
ANDER  VON  HuMiioi.DT,  accepted  tlie  conclusion  that  the 
Northmen  discovered  and  colonized  portions  of  the  Amer- 
ican continent  southwest  of  Greenland.  He  defined  Vin- 
land  as  the  region  between  Boston  and  New  York. 


i8 


The  native  Icelander  Magnu.ssen,  Professor  of  Ice- 
landic literature  in  Cambridge,  En;^land,  says,  in  a  recent 
letter  which  I  am  permitted  to  (juote :  "  There  is  no 
learned  body  in  Europe  that  even  breathes  a  doubt  about 
the  question  of  the  settlement  of  V'nland  by  Northmen." 

I  have  been  reminded  by  one  more  familiar  than  I  am 
with  the  literature  of  this  subject,  and  to  whom  the  lan- 
guage is  a  second  nature,  —  I  do  not  need  in  this  presence 
to  mention  the  name  of  the  lady  whose  efforts  underlie 
the  great  features  of  this  occasion, —  I  have,  I  say,  been 
reminded  that  I  might  quote  upon  this  point  among  great 
living  authorities,  the  Icelandic  Professor  Vigi-usson,  at 
Oxford,  and  Konrad  Maurer,  of  Germany,  and  Paul 
Riant,  of  PVance.  I  have  not  read  these  authors,  but  I 
have  had  opportunity  to  see  some  of  their  works,  and 
I  know  something  of  their  repute.  I  have  read  enough 
of  what  they  have  said  on  this  subject,  however,  to  find 
the  history  of  Vinland  accepted  by  them  as  that  of  any 
other  country  settled  nine  centuries  ago.  They  do  not 
regard  the  theme  as  calling  for  discussion. 

Two  names  more  I  will  give  you.  Our  own  J.  Elliot 
Cai'.ot  says,  in  sv.bstance,  that  no  scholar  qualified  to 
give  a  critical  judgment  on  the  historical  value  of  the 
Icelandic  Sagas  has  placed  himself  on  record  as  doubt- 
ing their  trustworthiness ;  and  of  this  conviction  was 
Edward  Everett. 


19 


III. 

Now,  what  is  the  great  fact  that  is  sustained  by  such 
an  array  of  authority  ?  It  is  this :  that  somewhere  to  the 
southwest  of  Greenland,  distant  at  least  a  fortnight's  sail, 
there  were,  for  three  hundred  years  after  the  beginning 
of  the  eleventh  century,  Norse  colonies  on  the  coast  of 
the  continent  of  America,  with  which  colonies  the  home 
country  maintained  commercial  intercourse.  The  country 
to  which  the  merchant  vessels  sailed  was  called  Vinland. 
This  is  the  fact  of  first  rank. 

The  fact  next  in  importance  is  that  the  first  of  the 
Northmen  to  set  foot  on  the  shores  of  Vinland  was  Leif 
Eriksen.     The  story  is  a  very  simple  one. 

Let  me  outline  the  relation  of  the  Sagas.  Leif  Erik- 
sen,  guided  by  the  story  of  a  merchantman,  who  many 
years  before  had  been  blown  off  his  course  in  a  storm  and 
seen  land,  sailed  southwestward  from  Greenland  in  the  year 
looo.  He  touched  at  two  points  which  he  had  expected 
to  find,  and  gave  them  names ;  and  after  some  three  weeks 
or  more  came  to  a  prominent  cape,  as  he  had  been  told 
he  would.  Somewhere  to  the  northwest  of  this  point,  and 
not  far,  he  built  houses  and  passed  a  winter,  and  called 
the  region  Vinland.  He  did  not  go  beyond  the  cape. 
He  was  succeeded  by  Thorwald,  Lcif's  brother.  He 
came  in  Lcif's  .ships  in  1002  to  Lcif's  headquarters,  and 
passed  the  winter.  The  summer  following  was  pas.sed 
in  explorations.  In  the  second  spring  Thorwald  manned 
his  ship  and  sailed  eastward  from   Leif's  house ;  and  un- 


r^ 


20 

luckily  blown  against  a  neck  of  land,  broke  the  stem  of 
the  ship.  He  grounded  his  ship  in  high  water  at  a  place 
where  the  tide  receded  with  the  ebb  to  a  great  distance, 
and  permitted  the  men  to  careen  her,  and  in  the  intervals 
of  the  tides  to  repair  her.  When  he  was  ready  to  sail 
again,  the  old  stem,  or  nose,  of  the  ship,  with  a  part  of 
the  keel,  was  set  up  in  the  sand.  Thor.vald's  party  re- 
mained three  years  in  the  neighboring  region,  examining 
sandy  shores  and  islands  to  the  north  of  the  point  on  or 
near  which  he  had  set  up  his  ship's  nose.  In  a  battle 
with  the  Indians  he  was  wounded  and  died,  and  was 
buried  in  Vinland,  and  in  the  spring  following  his  crew 
returned  to  Greenland. 

A  few  years  later,  Thorfinn,  and  his  wife  Gudrid, 
after  their  wedding  at  Leif  s  paternal  mansion,  Brattahlid, 
set  out  with  a  fleet  of  three  ships  and  one  hundred  and 
sixty  persons,  of  whom  seven  were  women,  to  go  to  Vin- 
land. They  sailed  with  a  northeast  wind  past  Helluland 
and  Markland,  already  observed  and  named  by  Leif,  and 
two  days'  sail  beyond,  when  they  came  to  the  ship's  nose 
set  up  on  the  shore.  Keeping  that  on  the  starboard, 
they  sailed  along  sandy  shores,  which,  for  a  reason  in- 
telligible through  the  researches  of  Professor  Mitchell, 
they  called  "  Wunderstrand  "  and  also  "  Furdustrand."  * 
About  the  southern  extremity  they  encountered  strong 
currents,  so  violent  that  they  gave  to  the  Sound  in  which 
they  occurred  the  name  of  "  Straum-Fiord "  (sound  of 
violent  currents).  Thorhall,  one  of  Thorfinn's  captains, 
ill  of  the  hard  fare,  disappointed  and  dissatisfied,  turned 
'  It  seems  possible  tliat  this  part  of  the  Saga  refers  to  a  later  exploratiofi. 


-^ 


i 


21 

his  vessel  to  the  north  to  explore  Vinland,  and  was  blown 
off  at  Kjalarnes.  Thorfinn  sailed  to  find  him,  but  with- 
out success.  After  establishing  himself  at  Leif's  houses, 
he  passed  repeatedly  around  the  keel  cape  and  along 
the  shore  to  Straumfjord  and  back,  and  at  the  end  of 
three  years  returned,  with  his  wife  Gudrid,  to  Green- 
land, and  thence  to  Norway  and  Iceland. 

I  may  not  fail  to  mention  that  this  Gudrid  was  the 
lady  who,  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  made  a  pious 
pilgrimage  to  Rome,  where  she  was  received  with  much 
distinction,  and  where  she  told  the  Pope  of  the  beautiful 
new  country  in  the  far  West,  of  "Vinland  the  Good," 
and  about  the  Christian  settlements  made  there  by 
Scandinavians. 

Nor  may  I  forget  to  mention  that  her  son  Snorri, 
born  in  America,  at  the  site  of  Leif's  houses,  —  and  per- 
haps it  may  some  day  be  possible  to  indicate  the  neigh- 
borhood of  his  birthplace  with  greater  precision,  —  has 
been  claimed  to  be  the  ancestor  of  Thorwaldsen,  the 
Danish  sculptor. 


IV. 

I  had  the  pleasure,  in  the  summer  of  1880,  of  an  inter- 
view with  Dr.  Worsaae,  Professor  of  Northern  ArchcTology 
in  the  University,  and  Director  of  the  Museum  of  North- 
ern Antiquities  at  Copenhagen,  —  the  author  of  the 
terms,  with  which  science  is  familiar,  the  Stone  Age, 
the  Bronze  Age,  and  the  Iron  Age. 

I  had  just  come  from  examining  a  Viking  ship  of  the 
tenth  or  eleventh  century,  I  think,  or  earlier  perhaps,  but 


22 

recently  exhumed  from  a  mound  at  Gokstad  in  southern 
Norway,  —  a  vessel  at  least  sixty  feet  long,  and  more  than 
twelve  feet  wide,  a  lapstreak  of  split  oak,  —  not  sawn  or 
hewn,  but  in    long  strips  like  basket  strips,  perhaps  an 
inch  in  thickness, — with  a  keel  a  foot  wide,  and  a  huge 
step   for   the    mast,   near  the   middle  from  end  to  end. 
Professor  Rygh,  the  custodian  of  the   Museum  of  the 
University  at  Christiania,  assured  me  that  such  a  step 
could  not  now  be  found  in  all  the  forests  of  Norway,  not 
even  in  those  of  the  Varanger  Fiord,  still  famed  for  its 
splendid  trees.     It  was  fashioned  from  a  section  of  the 
trunk  of  an  oak  some  five  feet  in  diameter,  and  served 
also.  Professor   Rygh   remarked,  the  purpose  of  ballast. 
There  were  two  sets  of  ribs  —  a  false  and  a  true  set  — 
of   most  ingenious   contrivance,  which  gave   a   measure 
of   flexibility  to    the  walls  of   the   hull.     All    the  wood 
was  of  a  dull,  deep  brown.     Professor  Rygh  gave  me  a 
piece   of   the   oakum  with    which   the   vessel    had   been 
caulked.     It   still    exhaled  the  odor  of  tar.     I  felt,  as  I 
i^azed  upon  this  Viking's  pride,  that  I  might  be  in  the 
presence  of  a  ship  that  had  exchanged  signals  with  the 
vessel  in  which  Leif  rounded  the  sandspit  of  Cape  Cod 
into  the  harbor  of    Provincetown,  almost  nine  centuries 
before.     Our  conversation  naturally  turned  on  V^inland, 
and  I  mentioned  one  or  two  facts  in  regard  to  names  of 
the  Massachusetts  coast,  which   had  not  before  claimed 
his  attention,  and   the   significance   of  which    he    recog- 
nized.    "But,"  said  he.  "what  need  have  you  of  more.' 
1  here  was  Adam  of  Bremen.     The  King  told  him  he 
had  subjects  in  Vinland." 


23 

This  is  what  Adam,  from  Bremen,  who,  in  1073,  almost 
half  a  century  before  Bishop  Upsi,  wrote  a  work  on  the 
propagation  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  north  of 
Europe,  said  in  a  brief  passage  at  the  end  of  his  book : 
"  Besides  these,  he  (King  Svend)  mentioned  another 
region  which  had  been  visited  by  many,  lying  in  that 
ocean,  which  is  called  Winland,  because  vines  grew  there 
spontaneously,  producing  very  good  wine  ;  grain  likewise 
springs  up  there  without  sowing.  This  we  learn,  not 
from  fabulous  reports,  but  from  the  accurate  accounts  of 
the  Danes." 

This,  you  see,  was  on  information  from  the  Bureau 
of  Navigation  furnished  to  the  King.  I  had  not 
appreciated  its  importance  before  my  interview  with 
Dr.  Worsaae.  Such  testimony  is  to  most  minds  beyond 
the  reach  of  distrust. 


To  the  story  of  the  Sagas  there  have  in  recent 
times  been  added  others,  which  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  ancient  relations,  —  the  story  of  the  Dighton  Rock, 
and  the  story  of  the  Stone  Tower.  They  were  the 
joint  fruit  of  our  own  early  historians  and  the  writers 
of  the  Northern  Society  of  Antiquaries  of  Copenhagen. 
Do  not  let  us  be  too  zealous  in  pronouncing  judgment 
against  those  who  related  and  believed  them.  These 
writers,  for  the  most  part,  have  long  since  acknowledged 
the  misinterpretation  of  facts  into  which  they  had  been 
led. 


24 

The  fascinated  antiquary,  who  is  the  first  to  enter 
a  new  field  of  research,  is  in  danger  of  attaching  un- 
merited significance  to  lesser  points.  His  horizon  has 
temporarily  been  narrowed,  of  course ;  else  he  had  not 
been  the  first  to  get  a  glimpse  of  before  unseen  truths. 
This  very  consideration  is  sometimes  the  occasion  of 
leading  others  into  too  ready  belief.  But  time,  in  the 
main,  restores  things  to  their  relative  importance. 

It  is  pleasant  to  add  here  that  Torfa?us,  the  Icelandic 
writer,  whose  work  published  in  1705  first  drew  attention 
to  the  story  of  Vinland,  is  to  this  day  the  highest  au- 
thority upon  these  Sagas ;  and  he  expressed  no  doubt 
as  to  their  trustworthiness. 

I  may  say  a  word  of  the  two  unhappy  claims ;  there 
are  others  of  less  moment,  but  I  will  not  dwell  on  them. 


DIGIITON    ROCK. 

There  is  a  boulder  —  I  have  seen  it — on  the  shore 
of  Taunton  River,  against  the  little  village  of  Dighton, 
on    which    is   an    elaborate    inscription    that    has    been 


Dighton  Uock,  Massachusetts. 


•I 


25 

repeatedly  copied,  and  which  was  thought  by  the  early 
antiquaries  to  resemble  inscriptions  of  a  Norse  char- 
actcr.  It  has  also  been  claimed  to  be  of  other  and  still 
more  ancient  origin.  The  discovery  of  numerous  other 
similar  inscriptions  of  palpable  Indian  origin  —  some  of 


Millsboro  Rock,  Pennsylvania. 


wiiich  I  have  seen  in  Arizona,  and  many  more  which  have 
been  collected  and  published  by  the  late  Mr.  Schoolcraft, 
and  more  recently,  at  great  length,  by  Major  Powell,  the 
head    of  the  Ethnological  IJurcau  —  has  led  to  the  re- 


36 


jection  of  the  view  first  entertained.  On  comparing  the 
inscription  with  one  from  Major  Powell's  recent  volume, 
one  sees  at  a  glance  why  the  markings  on  the  Dighton 
rock  have  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  work  of  Indians. 


THE   NEWPORT   TOWER. 


There  is  the  Stone  Tower  of  Newport,  which  was 
thought  to  be  of  Norse  construction.  It  had  the  stone 
columns  and  circular  arches  conceived  to  be  character- 


Mill  at  Chcstcrlon,  Kngland.  Tower  at  Newport. 

istic  of  Norse  architecture,  and  recalling  certain  stone 
windmills  of  England,  as  Dr.  Palfrey  has  pointed  out. 
It  recalls  also  the  massive  shafts  and  arches  of  the 
Norman  Chapel  in  the  White  Tower,  of  London,  and 
the  columns  in    the  grand   old    Norwegian  churches  at 


•''• 

Vi 


i 


a; 

Stavanger  and  at  Trondhcim.  Mention  of  it,  however, 
has  been  found  in  the  will  of  Mr.  Arnold,  a  well-known 
early  resident  of  Newport,  who  owned  the  lands  about 
the  Tower,  and  who  speaks  of  it  as  "  my  stone-built 
windmill."  The  date  of  its  construction  was  preserved 
in  the  diary  of  a  contemporary  citizen.  An  earlier, 
and  the  first  one,  built  in  1663,  was  blown  down.  It 
was  rebuilt,  and  of  stone,  in  1675.  Nothing  can  be 
more  conclusive  than  Dr.  Palfrey's  argument.  The  mill 
at  Chesterton  was  visited  by  him  and  this  cut  procured. 
Its  resemblance  to  the  old  Stone  Tower  is  too  striking 
to  call  for  comment. 


THE   LATITUDE. 

Exception  has  been  taken  to  the  assumed  latitude  of 
Vinland.     It  is  mentioned  in  the  Sagas'  account  of  Leif, 
whose  observations  were  continued   for  a   single  winter 
only,  that  the  shortest  day  of  the  year  in  Vinland  was 
of  a  length  which  would  help  to  fix  the  latitude  of  the 
place  of  observation.     It  may  have  been  between  41°  and 
43°,  — about    the    latitude  of  Massachusetts    Bay.     This 
was  the  latitude  answering  to  one  mode  of  computation. 
According   to   another,   the    point    of    observation    may 
have  been  about  49^  or  in  the  region  of  the   mouth  of 
the  St.  Lawrence.     There   are   other  estimates,  resting 
on  other  reasonings,  which  greatly  increase  the  contrast.' 
It  is  impossible  here  and  now  to  adequately  present  the 
various  views  that  have  been  entertained. 

'  See  Appendix. 


28 


'^'n 


i 


VI. 

I  might  dwell  at  some  length,  if  time  would  permit, 
upon  other  interesting  features  of  the  relations  of  the 
Sagas. 

1.  For  example,  one  of  very  great  significance  is  that 
of  the  extraordinary  height  of  the  tide  at  high  water,  and 
the  great  area  of  gently-sloping  surface  laid  bare  at  ebb 
tide,  which  enabled  Thorwald  to  renew  his  broken  keel. 
There  are  few  places.  Professor  Mitchell  says,  where  it 
is  possible  to  careen  and  repair  between  the  tides  a 
ship  drawing  ten  feet  of  water,  as  vessels  of  the  kind 
able  to  cross  the  Atlantic  probably  did.  In  the  bottom 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  as  you  know,  the  tides  rise  from 
ton  to  twelve  feet,  while  south  of  Cape  Cod  peninsula 
they  rise  but  from  three  to  five  feet. 

2.  There  arc  extraordinary  currents  found  only  against 
Nantucket,  to  which  the  Norsemen  referred,  and  which 
it  has  been  Mr.  Mitchell's  duty,  as  an  officer  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  to  study,  and  his  privilege  to  identify.  He  says  : 
"  The  two  great  tidal  oscillations  of  the  Atlantic  form 
their  node  at  or  very  near  70°  W.  L.,  which  intersects 
the  shore  of  Nantucket  Island.  There  the  oscillation 
ceases  to  be  vertical,  and  the  movement  becomes  almost 
horizontal,  precisely  as  at  the  node  of  a  musical  string. 
The  party  [of  LeifJ  were  not  at  the  southward  of  Cape 
Cod  Bay.  By  similar  reasoning  upon  the  tidal  node  it 
may  be  shown  that  they  [Leif's]  men  were  nowhere  to  the 
northeastward  of  Cape  Sable."     Mr.  Mitchell  is  the  first 


n 


1 


■I 


39 

man  of  scientific  habit  to  recognize  the  great  significance 
of  tlie  notes  in  the  Sagas  upon  the  tides  and  currents. 

3.  There  is  the  long,  slightly-curved  outline  of  Cape 
Cod  between  the  Race,  or  nortii  end,  and  the  southern 
extremity  of  Nausct  IJcach,  to  which  the  Noithmen,  as 
already  mentioned,  applied  tiic  terms  "  VVundcrstrand  " 
and  "  Furdustrand." 

Mr.  Mitchell  says :  "  The  sandy  shore  along  which 
they  passed  they  called  '  Wundcrstrand,'  because,  as  the 
Saga  says,  it  was  '  so  long  getting  round  it.'  The  expla- 
nation of  this  is  very  simple.  The  coast  was  a  great 
curve,  the  line  of  sight  was  tangent  to  that  curve,  and 
there  seemed  to  be  a  point  a  short  distance  ahead,  which 
receded  as  they  advanced.  This  chasing  after  a  vanish- 
ing point  is  quite  a  common  experience  along  sandy 
shores  when  a  vessel  is  seeking  a  shelter.  There  are 
several  places  on  our  coast  called  '  Point-no-Point,'  which 
are  simply  great  sweeps  of  the  shore,  —  trying  to  the 
patience,  as  I  know  from  experience.  In  the  Passaic 
River  below  Newark  there  are  four  places  known  as 
•  Point  Look-out,'  '  Point-no-Point,'  '  Point  Look-in,'  and 
'  Point  Agin.'  The  illusion  at  Cape  Cod  is  perfect,  and 
it  is  really  a  '  Wonder  Strand.' " 

4.  It  is  recorded  that  the  Skraelings  —  the  Indians  en- 
countered by  Thorwald  and  Thorfinn  —  had  canoes  made 
of  skins ;  and  it  is  said  that  while  such  boats  are  to  be 
found  in  the  possession  of  the  Eskimos  at  this  day,  they 
are  not  found  as  far  south  as  Cape  Cod.  To  this  it  has 
been  replied  that  the  Eskimos  may  have  come  to  Mass- 
achusetts  Bay  in  their  wars,  as   the  Iroquois   did   at  a 


SI  I  |i 


30 

later  period,  as  remarked  by  Champlain,  and  that  they 
might  have  brought  tlicir  boats  of  slcin  with  them.  It 
is  further  said  that  the  Icelandic  word  for  "skin"  may 
apply  to  the  bark  of  trees,  as  well  as  to  the  integuments 
of  animals,  and  that  birch-bark  canoes  may  well  have 
been  encountered  in  Massachusetts  Hay.  Champlain 
found  them  Ikmc  in   1605. 

5.  Of  the  grapes  which  the  German  Tyrkcr,  who  was 
of  Lcifs  crew,  discovered,  and  of  which,  as  a  native  of  a 
wine  country,  weary  of  his  ship's  rations,  he  doubtless 
over-ate.  there  were  then,  as  now,  a  plcMity  on  the 
shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  along  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Jacques  Cartier  speaks  of  them  as  early  as  1535.  Cham- 
plain found  them  in  great  profusion  and  excellence  about 
the  mouth  of  the  Chouacoit,  on  an  island  which  he  called 
"  Hacchus  Island  "  in  his  narrative,  though  it  does  not 
appear  on  any  of  his  maps  that  I  can  remember.  They 
are  now  gathered  in  quantities  every  year  along  our 
own  coast. 

6.  The  incidental  literature  of  the  story  of  the  North- 
men has  been  enriched  by  an  idyl,  which  we  all  know 
so  well,  —  an  idyl  so  sweet  and  so  ringing  that  it  were 
a  pity  to  invade  its  realm.  "The  Skeleton  in  Armor" 
was  unhappily  burned  with  the  town-hall  to  which  it  had 
been  consigned  for  safe  keeping.  But  the  verse  which  has 
given  us  the  ideal  hero  and  the  picture  of  his  race  and  his 
times  is  beyond  the  reach  of  conflagration.  It  may  per- 
haps be  permitted  me  to  say  that  I  once  analyzed  a  piece 
of  one  of  the  metallic  ornaments  gathered  up  with  the 
figure  it  had  served  to  encase,  and  compared  it  as  a  whole 


■^ 


i 
I 


.14o^...._j  Sept.? 


Dtt  4 


^k 


Urk.lH 


Bk.Nfv 


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31 


»  I' 4 


i 


.?f 


with  a  similar  decoration  found  by  a  personal  friend,  not 
fixr  from  the  grave  of  an  Indian  chief  known  to  have 
been  buried  within  less  than  two  hundred  years,  at  the 
east  end  of  Long  Island,  New  York.  Both  pieces  of 
metal  were  of  modern  date,  and  both  were  not  improb- 
ably of  the  native  copper  of  Lake  Superior,  with  slight 
traces  only  of  impurity. 

But  on  these,  and  all  other  minor  details,  it  will  be 
impossible  to  dwell. 

vn. 

Let  me  briefly  present  anew  the  story  of  the  discov- 
ery of  Vinland.  It  is  the  imperfection  perhaps  of  my 
method  of  treating  the  relations  of  the  Sagas  that  makes 
it  impossible  to  give  all  the  incidents  in  strict  sequence. 
It  will  be  a  repetition  in  part,  but  with  a  new  purpose. 
Please  revive  to  your  eye  the  outline  of  our  coast  on  the 
map.  Call  up  the  three  projections  into  the  sea :  New- 
foundland, Nova  Scotia,  and  Cape  Cod. 

In  985  a  voyager  from  Iceland  to  Greenland,  Bjarni,  a 
merchant  as  well  as  ship-master,  had  been  driven  from 
his  course  by  a  violent  northeast  storm,  accompanied 
by  thick  fogs,  which,  "  continuing  for  many  days,"  carried 
him  into  unknown  seas. 

The  southern  coast  of  Iceland  is  about  in  latitude 
63°  30'-  Bjarni  had  sailed  for  three  days  on  his  course 
toward  Greenland  when  the  northeasterly  storm  arose,  of 
such   great  violence,  driving   him    before    it  "  for  many 


-w-..'      \ 


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32 

days."  Precisely  how  many  days  the  storm  lasted  we 
are  left  to  conjecture;  but  we  are  not  left  wholly  in 
doubt  as  to  the  minimum  of  time,  or  how  far  he  may  have 
been  driven.  Captain  John  Rut,  an  English  navigator 
and  discoverer,  commanding  the  "  Mary  of  Guilford,"  in 
1527,  was  driven  in  a  frightful  northeast  storm  from 
the  latitude  of  53"  for  some  twenty  days.  In  his  letter 
to  Henry  VIII.  (Purchas,  vol.  iii.,  p.  809)  he  refers  to 
the  violence  of  the  storm,  which  carried  down  a  com- 
panion ship,  the  "  Sampson,"  and  brought  him  at  length 
to  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  de  Bas  (Low  Cape)  and 
enabled  him  to  find  shelter  in  the  Cape  de  Bas  harbor, — 
easily  identified  as  Bass  Harbor  Head  and  Bass  Harbor, 
on  the  southeast  coast  of  Mt.  Desert.  He  had  been 
swept  through  nearly  ten  degrees  of  latitude,  and  pos- 
sibly more  in  longitude.  His  letter  was  written  from 
St.  John's  (See  Lok's  map,  T582),  the  modern  Gloucester 
Harbor,  twenty-five  leagues  south  of  Cape  de  Bas  Harbor, 
then,  as  now,  the  resort  of  fleets  of  fishing-vessels.  The 
accompanying  sketch,  which  gives  the  region  of  the  great 
fog-belt,  is  from  the  Ilydrographical  Bureau  at  Washing, 
ton,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  Capt.  John  R.  Bartlctt, 
and  will  illustrate  the  field  in  which  both  Bjarni  and 
John  Rut  were  swept  beyond  their  control. 

When  the  sun  at  last  appeared,  Bjarni  found  himself 
off  a  low,  wooded  shore  destitute  of  mountains,  but  havino: 
rising  ground  in  many  parts,  —  the  first  European  to  see 
the  land  at  the  southwest  of  Greenland.  This  description 
applies  to  a  long  stretch  of  coast  on  the  outside  of  the 
peninsula  on  the  south  and  east  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 


.n  IT.     ''^  •  .;■'', -J    ^ 

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11 


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33 

The  coast  did  not  resemble  the  coast  of  Greenland, 
which  was  mountainous,  and  white  with  glaciers.  He  did 
not  land.  Deciding  that  the  country  he  sought  was  to 
the  north,  and  turning  his  prow  from  the  shore,  he  sailed, 
with  a  favoring  wind,  for  two  days,  when  he  found  him- 
self again  near  a  land  low,  level,  and  overgrown  with 
wood.  It  did  not  look  like  Greenland.  He  turned  away 
a  second  time  and  sailed  for  three  days  more,  still  with  a 
favoring  wind,  when  he  found  himself  opposite  a  high, 
bold  shore,  rocky  and  covered  with  snow.  He  proceeded, 
with  the  land  always  in  sight,  till  he  recognized  that  he 
was  coasting  an  island.  He  turned  again  away,  and  after 
four  days  of  wind  from  the  south,  so  violent  that  he  was 
obliged  to  shorten  sail,  he  found  himself  at  the  southern 
extremity  of  Greenland.  He  had  not  touched  shore  since 
he  left  Iceland.  He  had  been  not  less  than  fourteen 
days  sailing  to  the  northward.  He  told  his  story,  and 
was  upbraided  that  he  had  not  landed. 

A  few  years  (fourteen)  later  Bjarni  sold  his  ship  to 
Leif  Erikscn,  to  whom  the  adventure  had  been  related, 
and  who  gathered  a  crew,  not  improbably,  it  has  been 
suggested,  including  some  who  had  already  sailed  the 
ship  under  Bjarni.  With  this  ship  Leif  reversed  Bjarni's 
course,  virtually  with  the  ship's  log,  to  find  the  most 
distant  land  Bjarni  had  seen.  He  sailed  with  a  north- 
erly wind,  past  the  snow-covered  mountains,  which  he 
called  "  I  Iclluland  "  (slate-rock  land,  —  land  of  stratified 
rocks),^  came  upon  the  low  wooded  land  of  white  sandy 
shore,  which  he  called  "  Markland  "  (a  land  suitable  for 
'  These  are  the  phrases  of  a  well  educated  Norwegian  sailor. 


'^ 


lll: 


34 

settlement  and  farming),  and  then,  still  without  stopping, 
and  with  the  same  favoring  wind  for  two  days,  arrived 
at  another  promontory,  —  a  region  of  low  sandhills,  near 
which  he  came  to  anchor.  Me  did  not  pass  this  point. 
He  thought  it  an  island,  as  Gosnold  did  in  1602  and 
De  Monts  (Champlain)  in  1605.  This  island  was  the 
"In.  I3accalauras  "  of  the  Portuguese  on  Riiysch's  map, 
1507.  Lcif  turned  to  the  right,  and  sought  a  place  where 
he  set  up  dwelling-houses.  Me  passed  the  winter,  and 
returned  in  the  spring  to  Greenland. 

This  is  the  story  of  the  landfall  of  Leif.  He  had 
been  some  fortnight's  sail,  at  least,  distant  to  the  south- 
west. He  came,  so  we  conceive,  upon  the  northern 
extremity  of  Cape  Cod,  and  set  up  his  dwellings  some- 
where on  an  indentation  of  the  shore  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  the  site  of  which  may  yet  be  indicated. 


It  was  his  brother  Thorwald,  who,  following  him  two 
years  later,  stopped  at  Leif's  houses  and  passed  the 
winter.  The  next  summer  was  passed  in  expeditions 
along  the  ncigliboring  coast. 

Sailing  eastward  in  the  spring,  after  his  second  winter, 
he  was  driven  on  a  neck  of  land  in  bad  weather,  broke 
the  keel  of  his  ship,  grounded  his  vessel  at  high  water, 
careened  her,  and  stopped  a  long  time  to  renew  the  keel 
on  a  shore  where  the  water  retreated  a  great  way  seaward 
at  ebb  tide,  giving  him  time  to  work  when  the  tide  was 
out.  When  he  had  repaired  his  ship  he  set  up  the  old 
part,  which  had  been  removed,  in  the  sand,  and  said : 
"  We  will  set  up  the  old  keel  on  the  naes,  and  call  it 


!3k 


35 

Kjalarnacs,"  which  he  did.  He  passed  two  winters  in 
Leifs  houses,  was  wounded  in  a  fight  witii  Indians,  and 
dying  of  his  wounds,  was  buried  in  Vinland.  After 
another  winter  his  crew  returned  to  Greenland. 

The  route  was  now  blazoned  throughout. 

Thorfinn,  succeeding  Thorwald  a  few  years  later,  run- 
ning past  Helluland  and  Markland ;  and  from  the  first  of 
the  low,  wooded  promontories  or  the  islands  near  it,  as 
Leif  did,  and  as  Ujarni  before  him  had  done  in  the  op- 
posite direction,  in  two  days  came  upon  a  cape  and  the 
ship's  keel  which  Thorwald  had  set  up,  and  called  the  cape 
"  Kjalarnaes."     Is  there  a  link  wanting?     Let  us  see. 

Bjarni  had  made  a  forced  reconnaissance,  ending  in 
Greenland;  had  caught  glimpses  of  a  succession  of  head- 
lands along  a  northeasterly  course,  had  observed  their 
more  characteristic  appearances,  and  noted  their  relative 
distances  apart ;  liad  told  his  story  to  Leif,  and  sold 
him  his  ship.  Leif  made  a  leisurely  reconnaissance  in 
verification,  and  i)icketed  the  route  with  descriptive 
names.  Thorwald  found  the  course  so  familiar  to  his 
crew  that  he  proceeded  directly  to  his  brother's  house, 
and  later  set  up  a  monument  at  the  southern  limit  of 
his  voyage.  Thorfinn  found  the  monument  (the  old 
keel)  set  up  by  Thorwald,  as  he  expected  to,  and  turned 
soon  after  to  take  possession  of  Leifs  houses.' 

Or  the  summary  may  be  stated  in  another  way : 
Bjarni's  voyage  was  reversed  by  Leif  with  the  aid  of 
Bjarni's  log.  The  time  of  sailing  through  the  southern 
section  from  Cape  Sable  to  Cape  Cod  was  two  days  by 

1  The  Sagas  vary ;  compare  J.  Eliot  Cabot  with  Beamish. 


{  I 


I 


I 


36 

Bjarni;  two  days  by  Loif;  and  two  days  by  Thorfnin. 
Leif  was  succeeded  in  the  occupation  of  Ijis  houses  by 
Thorwald  and  Thorfinn.  Thorwald  and  Thoifinn  were 
both  at  the  old  keel,  and  the  keel-shaped  cape.  The 
chain  is  complete. 

VIII. 

I  now  present  to  you  a  map  preserved  by  Torfacus,  in 
which  Greenland  and  the  three  projections  into  the  sea 
to  which  I  called  your  attention  arc  given.     On  it  are 
Ilerjulfsnaes,  the  cape  on  or  near  which  Hjarni's  father 
lived,  the  modern  Cape  Farewell.     To  the  east  is  Iceland, 
from  which   Bjarni's  father  and   Leif's  father,  Erik  the 
Red,  emigrated  to  Greenland   in  the  latter  half  of  the 
tenth   century.     Southward    lies    the    first    projection,— 
the  point  where  Leif  went  ashore  and  found  the  rocks 
stratified,  and  called  the  region  "  Helluland."     We  call  it 
"  Newfoundland."    It  was  mountainous,  uninviting.    Ne.\t 
to  the  south  is  the  second  projection  into  the  sea,  — a 
low,  wooded    country  with    gently  rising    land  of  white 
sandy  shore,  inviting  to  settlement.      Leif  had  called  it 
"  Markland."     We  call  it  "  Nova  Scotia."     This  was  the 
"  Ahkada  "  (/and  there)  of  the  Indians,  and  later  the  home 
of    the    ill-fated    Acadians  (Ahkadians)  and    the    gentle 
Evangeline.     And  next  was  the  third  projection  into  the 
sea,  — sandy,  with  low  hills   but    no  mountains,  with  a 
gulf  on  the  west.   It  is  called  "  Promontorium  Vinlandiae," 
the  most  salient  point   of  Vinland.     We  call  it  "  Cape 
Cod." 


37 

This  map,  as  its  title  tells  us,  was  the  work  of  Sigiiicl 
Stcphanius  in  1570.  Now,  who  was  he  ?  Ur.  Kohl,  the 
geographer,  tells  us.'  I  Ic  (|uotes  Torlaceus,  from  whom 
Turfaeus  derives  his  infonuatioii.     He  was  a  "learned 


Si^ur^  SUpb»iaiufliR^(<y<ar  1570 

man,  once  the  most  worthy  rector  of  the  school  in  Skal- 
holt,  a  well  known  place  in  Iceland,  where  the  great 
collections  of   Icelandic  literature  were  kept.      He  had 

'  Maine  Hist.  Soc.  Col.  2d  -Series,  vol.  i.,  p.  107. 


38 

published  also  a  description  of  Iceland.  He  appears," 
says  Torfaeus,  "  to  have  taken  his  picture  from  the  Ice- 
landic Antiquities."  "Perhaps,"  says  Dr.  Kohl,  "these 
Icelandic  Antiquities  were  .  .  .  draughts  and  charts." 

What  could  be  finer?  —  an  original  map  by  an  Ice- 
landic schoolmaster,  with  which  to  teach  his  pupils  the 
story  of  the  discovery  of  Vinland  by  their  ancestors,  and 
the  outline  for  a  freehand  drawing,  with  the  three  pro- 
jections into  the  sea,  —  a  not  unworthy  sketch  of  the 
features  of  the  east  coast  of  North  America,  which  I 
asked  you,  at  the  outset,  to  hold  in  your  mind's  eye. 


IX. 


I  have  said  that  the  chain  is  complete.  It  leads  us 
from  Greenland  to  Promontorium  Vinlandiac.  Let  us 
look  out  from  this  eminence.  We  can  sec  to  the  north- 
eastward  the  track  of  Bjarni  and  Leif  and  Thorwald 
and  Thorfinn,  stretching  away  to  Herjulfsnaes,  the  home 
of  Bjarni's  father,  and  Eriksfjord,  the  house  of  Erik's 
father ;  and  to  the  south  the  course  of  Thorfinn  and 
Thorwall  along  the  F"urdustrand.  The  map  gives  us  the 
land  of  the  Skraelings,  whom  the  Norsemen  encoun- 
tered, as  north  or  west  of  the  promontory,  but  no  part 
of  Vinland  as  lying  south  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  The 
chain  of  evidence  is  complete ;  let  us,  however,  turn  our 
eyes  downwards  to  the  spot  on  which  we  stand.  We 
find  that  what  we  thought  the  last  link  lias  resolved  itself 
into  a  cable  of  many  strands,  and  of  augmented  strength 


m 


■"^ 


39 

in  their  mutual  support,  so  manifestly  incidental  and 
altogether  unpurposed. 

First  of  all,  "  Kjalarnaes  "  left  its  heir  in  "  Carenas," 
a  natural  abbreviation  by  the  mixed  race  of  the  Norse 
Colony  and  Indians.  This  became  "  C.  Arenas  "  and  tlien 
"  Cape  de  Arena  "  (Cape  of  the  Sand),  which  to  Cham- 
plain's  eye  was  "Cape  Blanc,"  and  to  the  Dutch,  "  Witte 
Hoeck."  The  profusion  of  a  particular  edible  fish  in  this 
region,  known  to  the  Indians  by  the  descriptive  term 
"bacca-loo"  (bacca,  bay;  and  \oo, food),  and  to  the  Eng- 
lish as  the  cod,  led  Gosnoid  to  call  it  "  Cape  Cod."  So 
Promontorium  Vinlandiae  was  <"ape  Cod.  The  map 
of  Lok  has  preserved  Carenas  near  the  landfall  of  John 
Cabot.     We  shall  return  to  this  theme. 

Let  us  take  another  strand.  Standing  on  the  High- 
land Liglit  Range  to  the  south  of  Provincctown,  with  the 
map  of  Ruysch '  in  our  hands,  we  look  down  on  Carenas. 
We  are  standing  on  the  cape  visited  by  the  early  Portu- 
guese navigators  of  the  period  of  1 500-1 507.'  We  are 
on  the  headland  at  one  side  of  a  bay.  The  headland 
opposite,  visible  in  favorable  weather  from  the  summit 
of  the  light-house  tower  (the  Highland  Light,  two  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  water),  is  distant  some  forty  miles. 
To  our  left  is  Terra  Nova  —  the  new-found-land  —  of  John 
Cabot,  and  the  elevated  range  which  he  called  "  Montcs 
Johannis,"  called  by  others  "  Montana  Verde,"  and  which 
we  call   the  "  Blue  Hills  "  of  Milton,  from  the  midst  of 


'  1500-1507:  Ptolemy  of  1508.  The  map  is  a  precious  revelation  of  tlie 
geography  of  the  times.  It  is  the  coast  of  Asia,  to  which  the  region  of  Cape 
Cod  has  been  attached  by  the  cartographers. 


t -rMiALeMiivorMWCHOMiMtii 


■r^ 


T 


40 

which  flows  the  "  Rio  Grande"  of  Ruysch,  the  name  borne 
for  a  century  by  the  Charles.  We  are  on  the  In.  Bacca- 
laiiras,  the  earliest  suggestion  of  the  name  subsequently 
given,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  cape  on  which  we  stand, 
which  was  mistaken  by  the  Portuguese  navigators,  as  by 
Leif  and  by  Gosnold,  for  an  island.  They  thought  the 
headland,  as  did  De  Monts,  at  Eastham.'  Across  the 
bay  is  the  "  Baia  dc  Rockas,"  the  herald  of  "  Lamuetto"^ 
of  Verrazano,  of  "Brisa"^  and  "Briso"  of  Gastaldi  and 
Ruscelli  and  Mercator. 

An  earlier  chart  (Cosa's  of  1500)  displays  at  this  point, 
possibly,  the  flag  of  Venetian  and  British  sovereignty  set 
up  by  John  Cabot  on  one  of  the  two  islands,  obser\'cd 
to  the  right  of  his  landfall.  This  sketch,  doubtless  fur- 
nished by  a  sailor  who  had  been  with  Cabot  and  afterward 
shipped  with  Cosa,  crudely  presents  the  prevailing  idea 
of  the  time,  that  the  whole  western  world  was  a  vast 
archipelago,  along  the  skirt  of  which  for  three  hundred 
leagues  Cabot  sailed  on  his  return  voyage  (Stevens's 
Geographical  Notes). 

An  earlier  sketch  than  Ruysch's,  indeed  coeval  with 
Cosa's,  presents  to  us  "Cortercal,"  before  whose  "Cabo  di 
Concepicion"  (beginning  —  landfall.?)  we  may  be  standing. 
One  name  on  the  chart  (St.  Louis)  has  survived  all  the 
abrasions  and  dislocations  of  time,  appearing  as  "S.  Luzia" 
on  Cosa's  map,  "  Luisa"  on  Verrazano  (Maiollo),  and  "  St. 
Loys"  and  "St.  Louis"  on  Champlain's  different  editions 

'  See  Slafter's  "  Champliiin." 

'  From  the  Icelandic  root  /ama,  "to  bruise  "  (Skeat). 
'  French  for  JJn-ah-rs,  ,1  name  many  times  repeated  on  our  Co.ast-Survey 
maps  of  tlic  region,  —  the  forerunner  of  our  "  IJakcr's  Island,"  off  Salem. 


' 


^ 


.^ipp 


I 


4» 

(Dr.  Slafter,  Prince's  Soc.) ;  and  by  an  eccentric  freak  of 
cartography  and  invention  is  seen  to  this  day  in  "  Cape 
Freels  "  ("  Fra  Luis,"  sec  Dr.  Kohl)  on  the  east  coast  of 
Newfoundland.  The  "San  Antonio"  of  Cortcreal  has 
had  an  almost  equal  longevity. 

Our  point  of  outlook  commands  on  the  one  hand 
"  Dieppa"  (I'rovincetown.?),  the  landfall  of  Verrazano  in 
1524  (on  his  Terra  IHorida);  and  on  the  other  the  "  Wun- 
derstrand"  of  Thorfinn  —  Nauset  Beach  —  as  described 
possibly  in  the  letter  of  Verrazano  to  the  King,  and  pic- 
tured on  the  maps  of  Maiollo  and  Hieronymus  Verrazano 
from  data  of  the  great  expedition,  —  stretching  away  to 
the  southward  with  its  sliglitly  curved,  bold,  and  harbor- 
less  shore,  and  its  occasional  inlets  through  the  outer 
sand-bars. 

From  the  heights  in  Yarmouth,  the  Town  Hill,  ac- 
cording to  Hieronymus  Verrazano,  fancying  himself  at 
Darien,  one  may  look  down  on  one  side  into  the  Atlantic, 
and  on  the  other  side  into  the  Western  Sea,  t'le  "  Mare 
Verrazano  "  on  Lok's  map  (the  Pacific),  six  miles  apart. 
This  isthmus  is  preserved  in  the  map  of  Lok  dedicated 
to  his  friend  Sir  Philip  Sidney  in  1582,  which  forever 
associates  it  with  Carenas  and  John  Cabot's  landfall 
and  the  site  of  Norumbega.  Numerous  maps  of  tlie 
half-century  preceding  Lok  contained  the  isthmus.  It 
was  along  this  water-front  that  Verrazano  found  among 
some  small  hills  a  lake  three  leagues  in  circumference, 
connected  with  a  sea  by  a  deep  river  half  a  league 
long,  at  whose  mouth  the  tide  was  not  less  than  eight 
feet.     We   may  see  later  that  Leif  and  Thorvvald   and 


Wf77. 


^/M^. 


1^ 


«?i%-i» 


* 


Uiu;*tt/u 


2    .      4^^ 


1  -A  V-Ah 


•> 


^^,K.- 


«^ 


cn^mitit  it  vult 
'^  man  otri^mt^ 
Soma  6  i»//i/*  rfi  ig^^ 


N«  J.  Oiiilini'or<*>*inHpurnierDii> 
inirt  .i.t  WiniMiiu.  JO^it,  in  lh«  Hu. 
i^'riHo!  ibc  Propi.jr«ii-ia  Konio. 

No  2  Thff  North /linfricmtottti  i;;i« 
ufNo  I,  wirh  tbf  r,«me«  fi^m  itie 
onifirwiand  notrfiral  piiblwhed. 


"'>  fc-l,,,,^ 


y 


'  '^-.r- 


l^n  <)•.■  l„ 


'"K/oa 


<lic 


"9iinp 


42 

Thorfinn  were  familiar  with  this  lake.  The  mistaken 
impression  of  llieronymus  Verrazano  led  him  to  place 
the  alternative  name  of  "  Yucatan  "  (sec  Vcrra/ano's  Map, 
M  uri)liy's  "  Verrazano  ")  to  the  north,  covering  the  land 
immediately  to  the  west,  with  its  water-front  stretching 
from  Cape  Ann  to  Cape  Cod. 

Besides  the  name  "Yucatan"  it  was  also  called  "Norum- 
bega,"  "  the  Land  of  the  nrctons,"  "  Verrazana,"  "  Gallia," 
"  New  France,"  and  "  the  Land  of  Gomez,"  —  being  the 
theatre  of  exploration  of  this  last-named  navigator,  under 
instruction  from  the  king,  in  the  year  following  Verra- 
zano's  voyage.  Such  are  the  names  with  which  Vin- 
land  was  endowed  before  she  became  the  Massachusetts 
of  the  Puritans. 

Later  still  wc  see  Allcfonscc,  in  1 542-1 543,  learning 
from  the  race  on  the  shore  that  the  tongue  of  land 
we  are  considering  was  described  by  the  Indian  name 
of  "  Norom-begue  "  (Norumbcga,  —  divider  of  a  bay). 
Allcfonscc  says,  as  if  he  had  before  him  the  chart  of 
John  Cabot  and  the  map  of  Ruysch  and  that  of  Maiollo : 
"  These  landes  lye  over  against  Tartaric,  and  I  doubt 
not  but  that  they  stretch  toward  Asia,  according  to  the 
roundnessc  of  the  world.  And  therefore  it  were  good 
to  have  a  small  shippe  of  seventy  tunnes  to  discover  the 
coast  of  New  I-'rance  [on  the  back  side  of  Florida'], 
for  I  have  been  at  a  bay  [Harnstable]  as  farre  as  42° 
betweene    Norumbcga    and    Florida,   and    I    have    not 


'  "On  the  linck  side  of  Florida  "  seems  to  have  been  a  conviction  which 
Hakluyt  thoughtlessly  inserted  The  original  French  reads  "  to  discover  the 
Co.ist  of  Florida,"  — pour  descouvrir  la  coste  de  la  Floride. 


43 

searched  the  ende,  and  I  know  not  whether  it  pass 
through." ' 

Our  eye  follows  him  down  to  the  entrance  to  IJarn- 
stable  Hay,  which  he  conjectured  might  lead  through  to 
the  ocean  of  the  "Spice  Islands  "  (the  Pacific);  and  in  his 
coursing  along  the  Cohasset  Rocks  and  the  Glades  and 
the  Ihcwsters  into  our  harbor,  he  learned  of  the  trading- 
post  on  the  river,  which  he  gathered  bore  the  same 
name  as  Cape  Cod  did,  the  name  "  Norom-bcguc"  (our 
Charles),  or  "  Norombcga,"  as  John  Cabot  heard  it  at 
Salem  Neck.' 

It  was  in  the  record  of  this  voyage  that  Allcfonsce 
revealed  the  mystery  of  the  two  Cape  Bretons,  two 
Labradors,  two  Floridas,  three  Terra-Novas,  several  St. 
Johns,  and  many  Norumbegas,  which  have  so  long  per- 
plexed the  study  of  the  cartography  of  our  coast. 

But  we  are  still  considering  the  eminence  behind  Prov- 
incctown,  whose  harbor  I  looked  down  upon  the  other 
day,  glittering  with  its  countless  craft  from  the  Banks,  and 
its  mackerel  fleet  altogether  of  seven  hundred  sail.  What 
a  contrast  with  the  scene  as  it  appeared  to  Allcfonsce 
in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  this  point 
of  land  was  animated  only  by  a  handful  of  Indians,  and 
others  of  mi.ved  descent! 


1  H.ikluyt,  vol.  iii.  p.  239,  cd.  1600. 

^  "  Norumbcg.i,"  —  Algonquin:    divider  of  a  bay;  divider  of  water ; 
shallows  between  still  waters  on  a  river;  tongue;  headland;  cape. 


-r-r^ 


44 


X. 


THE  TESTIMONY    OK    NAMES. 


The  last  strand  presents  a  kind  of  evidence  tnat  will 
commend  itself  to  your  appreciation,  and  which  England 
is  full  of,  —  the  evidence  of  previous  occupancy  found  in 
the  names  of  places.  You  do  not  need  to  be  told  the 
meaning  of  "  Dock  Square,"  —  the  spot  so  near  which  we 
are  standing.  There  is  water  in  the  name,  and  wharves, 
and  shipping,  and  landing,  and  embarkation,  though  there 
is  half  a  mile  of  solid  land  between  us  and  the  sea.  You 
may  have  to  think  a  little  to  see  what  the  English 
"  Chester  "  means.  You  do  not  necessarily  at  first  glance 
recognize  castra,  and  a  Roman  camp,  and  cohorts,  and 
legions.  Wlicn  the  guide  points  out  to  you  in  London 
the  site  of  the  "  Tabard  Inn,"  from  which,  he  tells  you, 
Chaucer  and  his  friends  set  out  for  Canterbury,  there 
rises  before  you  a  hostelry  carrying  a  name  that  goes 
back  to  the  prevalence  of  Latin  speech.  You  do  not 
quite  so  promptly  see  in  Bcrgsabcrn,  the  "  Tavcrna  Mon- 
tana "  of  Roman  times,  in  the  mountains  along  the  upper 
valley  of  the  Rhine.  But  with  a  little  thought  you  see  in 
it,  as  in  "  Tabard,"  the  familiar  equivalent  and  heir,  — 
our  tavern.  "  Berg"  is  mountain;  "  Bergsabern  "  is  half- 
German  and  half-Latin,  with  a  little  sacrifice  to  the  facility 
of  utterance.  Latin  names  of  places  are  to  be  met  with 
in  England  from  the  ancient  Roman  wall  on  the  north 
to  the  cliffs  of  Albion.  They  point  to  the  occupancy  by 
a  Latin  race,  of  which  wc  have  historical  record  for  more 


I 


45 


than  two  thousand  years.  But  the  record  is  also  in  the 
language  and  the  laws  of  England.  It  confirms  the 
evidence  of  the  names  of  places ;  but  the  names  would 
be  evidence  alone  of  the  early  presence  of  the  Romans 
in  England.     I  need  not  dwell  on  it. 

Other  names  point  to  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of 
England,  or  at  least,  the  people  the  Romans  found. 
Others  still,  to  the  invasion  by  the  Saxons  under  Hen- 
gist  ;  and  others  to  the  conquest  by  William  of  the 
Normans  (Northmen).  Certain  names  ending  in  xuold 
and  certain  others  ending  in  mont  do  not  need  to  be 
mentioned  as  pointing  to  the  occupancy  by  Saxon  and 
French.  But  along  the  coast  of  England  and  Scotland 
we  have  names  ending  in  ncss  or  nacs,  —  as  "  Dunge- 
ness,"  "Caith-ness,"  "  Busha-ness,"  "  Clyth-ness,"  "  Tarbet- 
ness,"  —  all  pointing  to  Norway,  where  names  of  capes 
with  this  ending  arc  common.  They  abound  in  Ice- 
land and  in  historic  Greenland,  and  two  of  them  are 
in  the  Saga  sto.ics  of  America  discovered  by  the 
Northmen  ;  one  of  these  is  "  Kjalarncs,"  and  the  other 
"  Cross-a-nes." 

Do  "  Dungeness"  and  "  Tarbctness  "  and  "  Holdcrness  " 
point  to  former  occupancy  by  Northmen  ?  To  what  do 
"  Kjalarnes  "  and  "  Cross-a-nes  "  point  but  to  former  oc- 
cupancy by  Northmen.'' 

Now  it  happens —  Dr.  Trumbull  has  pointed  it  out  in 
the  case  of  our  Indian  dialects  —  that  in  the  main  the 
Indian  names  of  New  England  describe  the  places  to 
which  they  are  attached.  The  same  thing  has  been 
remarked  with  regard  to  the  names  of  places,  streams. 


5!i 


o  O 


:^" 


l^^?:^rl-<^ 


.^^ 


H 


\vl-^ 


.^>''-- 


's>>t'-\-^ 


>? 


-^:^ 


^' 


v^vy 


x<->> 


Cv'-V    NX 


;><^ 


46 


mountains,  bays,  etc.,  topographical  or  gcograiihical,  of 
other  parts  of  our  country  and  of  Old  England  as  well. 
Like  observations  have  been  made  in  other  lands.  This 
habit  of  applying  descriptive  names  to  places  appears 
to  have  been  universal  among  aboriginal  people.  In 
some  cases  among  our  Indians,  as  Dr.  Trumbull  and 
also  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rand,  of  Nova  Scotia,  the  author 
of  the  "  Mic  Mac  Dictionary,"  have  remarked,  the  names 
are  reminiscences.  Sometimes  a  name  is  both  descrip- 
tive and  a  reminiscence.  "  Kjalarncs "  is  of  this  char- 
acter. It  is  Norse  for  keel  nose,  as  we  have  seen,  and 
also  describes  Cape  Cod,  the  end  of  the  curve  being  the 
sandspit  across  the  harbor  from  Provincetown. 

On  the  early  map  of  Lok,  1582,  in  part  a  sketch  from 
the  chart  of  John  Cabot,  1497,  as  I  conceive,  "  Carenas"is 
found  at  our  Cape  Cod.  That  Carenas  is  Cape  Cod  may 
be  said  to  have  been  uniformly  accepted  by  writers  upon 
the  cartography  of  the  New  England  coast.  The  ques- 
tion arises.  Is  this  Carenas  a  memory,  presorved  by  the 
ofTspring  of  the  early  Norsemen  who  intermarried  with 
the  natives.'  In  other  words,  Is  Carenas  on  Lok's  map 
—  the  Cape  Cod  of  to-day  — other  than  the  corrupted 
"  Kjalarncs  "  of  Thorwald  and  Thorfinn  t  An  intelligent 
Norwegian  sailor  has  told  me  that  the  merging  of  the 
/  and  r  into  one  is  not  unusual,  and  that  among  the 
common  people  of  Norway  one  syllable,  as  we  pronounce 
the  word,  would  be  almost  dropped.  It  would  become 
nearly  Kolr-a-ncs,  with  a  broad  sound  of  a,  more  like 
that  of  long  o,  and  a  vanishing  sound  of  the  /'  On 
»  Rafn  says  "  '  Kj41arnes,'  from  'kjiilr '  —  keel,  and  '  naes '  —  nose" 


JA1 

1^- 


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J.l< 


i:Ur^o 


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47 

M.  Mcriam's  map,  of  about  the  end  of  the  i6th  century, 
occurs,  near  Cape  Cod,  "  P.  Coaranes,"— evidently  a  name 
from  the  natives,  and  ahnost  coincident  with  "  Kolr-a-ncs." 
From  "  Coaranes  "  to  "  Carcnas"  is  not  far.  "  Carcnas."  by 
careless  copying,  as  already  intimated,  became  "C  arenas," 
with  a  hiatus  after  the  C,  and  then  "  C.  Arenas,"  with  a 
capital  A,  and  then  "  Cape  dc  Arenas,"  and  then  "  C.  de 
Arena ; "  and  so  from  being  the  "  cape  of  the  keel,"  it 
became  "Sand  Cape." 

Again,  what  are  "  East  Chop  "  and  "  West  Chop," 
the  names  still  borne  by  the  headlands  on  either  side  of 
the  entrance  to  Holmes  Hole,  the  principal  harbor  of 
Marthas  (Martin's)  Vineyard,  but  the  memories  of  "  Ost 
Kop"  and  "  Vest  Kop  "  of  the  Northmen  ?  As  the  Eng- 
lishmen spelled  the  Scotch  "kirk"  with  ch.  displacing 
the  k,  so  the  emigrant  Englishmen  would  naturally,  in 
writing,  displace  the  k  of  "Kop"  with  ch,  making  "Chop." 
There  is  another  West  Chop,  near  Chatham. 

Is  "  No  Man's  Land,"  the  name  of  a  small  island  south- 
west  of   Martha's  Vineyard,  a   memory  of  "  No'thman's 

Land " ? 

These  are  not  English  names.  They  arc  not  Indian 
names.  What  remains  but  that  they  arc  inheritances 
of  the  time  when  Norse  colonies  were  in  the  territory 
of  Massachusetts,  — preserved,  as  before  intimated,  by 
men  who  might  boast  of  Norse  blood  in  their  veins  ? 
There  arc,  to  the  careful  student,  unmistakable  evidences 
that  the  navigators  recorded  names  of  places  given  them 
by  natives,  as  understood  or  as  translated  into  their  own 
languages. 


Here  is  another  striking  coincidence,  —  this  time 
nearer  Fancuil  Hall.  North  of  Cape  Cod  there  has 
been  preserved  to  us  the  name  "  Norman's  Woe,"  or 
"  Norman's  Oc."  It  is  a  small,  rocky  island  on  the  west 
side  of  the  entrance  to  Gloucester  Harbor.  If  \vc  go 
back  to  the  maps  of  the  centuries  following  the  time 
of  these  Norse  navigators,  we  find  kindred  names  in 
the  same  region.  On  Maiollo's  (V'crrazano's)  map  of 
1524-7  there  is  given,  at  a  point  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Boston  Harbor,  "Norman  Villa,"  that  is,  Northman's 
House.  It  is  also  given  on  the  globe  of  Ulpius  of  a  few 
years  later,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  New  York 
Historical  Society.  Of  this  map  of  Maiollo,  preserved 
in  the  Ambrosian  Library  at  Milan,  I  have  photographic 
negatives,  through  the  kindness  of  Rev.  Ur.  De  Costa. 
It  seems  to  have  been  produced  from  memoranda  of 
the  same  date  as  those  of  the  map  of  Hicronymus  Ver- 
razano,  but  collected  by  a  different  hand,  and  so  virtually 
an  independent  authority. 

On  these  authorities  we  have  "longa  villa,"  and  "lunga 
villa  "  on  one  map  and  a  globe,  and  "  lunga  villa  "  twice 
on  a  second  map,  which,  if  it  were  a  part  of  an  Indian 
record,  we  should  recognize  as  indicating  the  Indian 
"long  house"  of  the  Iroquois,  with  which  we  are  familiar; 
and  wc  know  they  were  in  this  region  about  that  time 
(Slafter's  "  Champlain").  "Villa"  is  also  a  collection  of 
houses. 

To  what  else  than  the  occupancy  by  Northmen  does 
the  name  of  "  Norman  Villa "  on  the  map  of  Maiollo 
(Verrazano)  and  the  globe  of  Ulpius  point? 


I 

i 

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49 

Once  more.  There  are  on  the  maps  of  this  region 
names  of  the  church,  such  as  "St.  Christopher,"  and 
"  Santanna,"  and  "  Lanunciata,"  and  "  St.  Peter,"  and  "  St. 
Paul,"  and  the  "  Bay  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,"  "  Clauda  " 
(Acts  xxvii.  i6),  and  "Santa  Maria,"  and  the  "  Rio  Buena 
Madre."  The  last  two  are  names  of  our  own  harbor  and 
river.  Can  these  point  to  Bishop  Upsi,  or  some  of  his 
successors,  as  their  source  ? 

Take  into  the  same  association  the  spot  where  Thor- 
wald,  the  recent  Christian  convert,  desired  to  be  buried, 
—  " Cross-a-nes," — and  also  "Refugio"  and  "Paradiso" 
in  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  still  preserved  "  Paradise  " 
and  "  Purgatory,"  of  the  neighborhood  of  Newport. 

All  these  except  the  last  two  are  o"  Hie  coast  between 
Cape  Cod  and  Cape  Ann,  and  all  are  in  ancient  Vinland. 

What  do  all  these  names  mean  ?  They  certainly 
are  not  Algonquin  or  Iroquois  names.  They  are  not 
names  bestowed  by  the  Plymouth  or  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colonies. 

Of  most  of  them  is  there  any  other  conceivable  source 
than  the  memories  lingering  among  a  people  whose 
ancestors  were  familiar  with  them  ?  Are  they  not,  for 
the  most  part,  relics  of  names  imposed  by  Northmen 
once  residing  here? 

But  there  is  one  other,  and  the  chief  name  which  we 
have — I  had  almost  said  unconsciously — preserved.  It 
is  "  Vinland." 


II 


On  the  map  of  Stephanius,  the  Icelandic  schoolmaster, 
we  have  the  cape  called  "  Promontorium  Vinlandiae,"  — 


so 

the  Promontory  or  Headland  of  Vinland.  It  is  the  most 
southern  of  the  three  projections  into  the  sea  displayed 
on  his  map,  —  the  three  projections  of  which,  you  will 
remember,  I  asked  you  to  take  note.  Here  is  the  name 
bestowed  by  Leif,  masked  in  Latin,  as  it  continued 
to  be  masked,  more  or  less,  in  the  translations  into  the 
languages  of  the  na\  ^  jrs  visiting  our  shores,  or  of 
the  authors  of  the  maps  on  which  the  name  occurs ; 
and  this  has  been  continued,  as  we  shall  see,  down  to 
our  day. 

The  region  to  the  south  is  not  given,  and  the  bay  to 
the  north,  reaching  to  Markland,  our  Nova  Scotia,  cor- 
responds to  the  great  bay  which  Dr.  Kohl  proposed  lO 
call  the  "  Gulf  of  Maine." 

Stephanius's  map  bears  date  of  1570.  De  Laet,  a  direc- 
tor of  the  great  Dutch  West  India  Company,  published  a 
work  in  1625  entitled  the  "  Niewe  Wcreld,"  in  which  was 
a  map  of  the  New  England  coast.  On  this  map,  a  little 
to  the  north  of  Cape  Cod,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nor- 
mans' Oe,  and  Norman  Villa  and  Boston,  he  has  given, 
quite  zvit/nn  the  main  land, —  not  at  all,  properly  speaking, 
on  the  coast,  — 

I.  DE  Bacchus. 
It  is  the  island  of  the  wine  god,  where  the  choice  fruit- 
yielding  vine  grows  naturally.  The  name  looks  as  if  it 
had  come  down  from  the  time  when  all  the  New  World 
was  supposed  to  be  made  up  of  islands,  as  they  were 
figured  on  Cosa's  map,  and  as  Columbus  believed,  and 
as  did  Allcfonsce,  and  as  Ramusio  wrote,  down  to  1556. 
De  Laet  wrote  in  the  light  of  a  vast  collection  of  original 


' 


r? 


51 

manuscripts,  and  though  he  does  not  mention  it  he 
probably  owes  the  name  to  Champlain.  We  shall  pres- 
sently  see  that  "Isle  of  Bacchus"  is  the  equivalent  of 
"  Vinland." 

In  1671,  on  Montanus's  map  of  the  New  England  coast, 
"  I.  de  Bacchus  "  was  applied  to  an  island  off  the  coast,  at 
a  point  where  Champlain  says  he  gave  that  name  to  an 
island,  since  recognized  perhaps  (Rev.  Dr.  Slafter,  Prince 
Society)  as  Richmond  Island,  but  which  he  did  not  place 
on  any  of  his  maps  that  I  have  seen.  But  on  this  map 
occurs  another  name  that  points  to  Vinland  more  immedi- 
ately, or  a  memory  of  it  among  the  aborigines,  of  whom  the 
navigators  made  inquiry.  We  have  "  Wyngaerts  Hoek," 
and  "  Wyngaerts  Island  ; "  a  cape  of  vine  gardens,  and  an 
island  of  vineyards.  Yard  and  gacni  are  equivalents;  a 
and  i  are  interchangeable.  Is  this  a  vineland  —  Vin- 
land ?  ^ 

Later  still,  1689,  fifty  years  after  Harvard  College  had 
been  founded,  we  have  on  a  map  dedicated  by  L.  Nolin 
to  the  Abbe  Baudrand,  "  Isles  de  Bacchus  ou  Wyngaerdcn 
Eylandt."  This  map  was  enriched,  as  the  compiler  tells 
us,  from  the  personal  investigation  of  charts  in  the  ar- 
chives of  Venice.  The  name  is  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Kennebec.     The  outline  of  shore  gives  Boston  Harbor, 

•  It  will  not  escape  tlic  render  wliose  eye  may  have  rested  on  a  brochure 
entitled  "The  Landfall  of  Ciliot  and  the  Site  of  Norumbega."  that  .against 
"  Wyngacrt's  Hoeck,"  against  "  Salem  "  =  Naunit<eag  =  the  nncicnt  Norum- 
hega,  we  find  "  Urislow,"  the  name  of  Cabot's  port  of  embarkation  in  1497. 
recognized  In  his  Landfall  (as  I  conceive)  by  I'rince  Charks,  in  the  name 
arbitrarily  ^iven  by  him  at  the  suggestion  of  Captain  Jolm  Smith.  The  n.ame 
of  ■•  Bristonum  "  appears  also  on  the  site  of  Salem  on  the  map  of  Creuxius, 
1660.     Winsor's  "  America,"  vol  iv.  [..  3S9. 


■^^ 


\  i 


52 

and  the  Charles  dividing  at  a  lake  into  two  branches, 
like  the  Charles  and  Stony  Brook.' 

There  is  an  Italian  map  in  "  The  Documentary  History 
of  New  York"  (O'Callaghan,  vol.  i.),  apparently  made  by 
Lucini,  and  of  about  this  period,  having  on  it,  against 
Cape  Ann  and  the  "  Three  Turks  Heads  "  of  John  Smith, 
the  name  "  C  di  Wingacrt"  (Cape  of  Vineyard,  or  Vine- 
land),  and  farther  north,  "  I.  di  Winter ; "  and  under  it, 
"  Wingaert,"  a  vineyard. 

On  a  French  map  of  1558,  near  the  entrance  to  Boston 
Harbor,  we  find  "  Les  Jardincs."^ 

There  is  another  map  —  there  may  be  many,  of  course, 
which  I  have  not  seen  —  to  which  I  will  allude.    It  carries 


>  One  will  not  fail  to  observe  on  Nolin's  map  the  n.ime  of  Fort  Norum- 
begue,  altern.itive  to  I'cnt.igott.  This  confusion  c.%mc  from  a  misapprehen- 
sion of  Champlain,  as  1  have  elsewhere  pointed  out.  It  is  the  most  unmis- 
takable recoijnition  of  a  \'illa  or  Fort  of  Norumbcga,  such  as  Allcfonsce  and 
Thcvct  mentioned.  There  is  some  confusion  of  names  and  of  relative  topog- 
raphy, but  the  bay  can  only  be  Hoston  li.iy,  and  tlic  river  the  Charles,  near 
which  the  memory  of  the  Fort  lingered  down  to  the  navigator  whose  charts 
lay  before  Nolin.  On  tliis  map  appear  the  famili.ar  n.imes  of  "  Dorcester," 
"  Newton,"  "  Plymouth,"  "  Boston,"  "Trovidence,"  etc. 

'  There  are  names  like  "  Lan-prunera"and  "  L.an  prunella,"  that  suggests 
the  ripe  beach-plum  ;  and  "  Oliva  "  (green,  or  unripe  plums),  and  "  PalnLas  " 
(Indian  corn-fields),  and  "  Figia"  (prickly  pear  fruit),  and  "  Pl.igia  Calami  " 
(cat-tail  flags  ?),  —  which  sound  like  products  of  the  soil,  all  of  which  are  found 
on  Cape  Cod.     See  Map  of  Hieronymus  W-rrazano 

The  Pilgrims  found  on  C.iix;  Cod  th.at  "  corn  had  been  planted  three  or  four 
year",  ago  '  "  They  found  "  also  "divers  cornfields  "  (Davis,  "  Plymouth. ") 
Thorfiun's  Scotch  servants,  sent  out  at  the  east  end  of  Cape  Cod,  brought  him 
an  e.ar  of  corn.  Winthrop  obtained  in  1633,  100  pounds  of  corn  from  the  south 
side  of  Cape  Cod.  "  Gosnold  went  here  .ashore  and  found  the  ground  full 
of  pears  [prickly  pear  ?  cactus]  strawberries,  liurtleberrics,  etc."  Were  the 
pears  picked  to  furnish  figs  to  be  laid  before  the  writers  ?  The  fruit  of  the 
prickly  pear  rcscmt  les  the  fig. 

Hakluyt  also  refers  to  pe.ars  and  figs  as  occurring  still  further  north. 
Vol.  iii.  p.  .139,  ed.  1600. 


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53 

the  name  "  Vingacrt's  Eylan,"  near  Cape  Ann.  It  has 
some  interest  as  being  a  hcliotype  copy  of  a  very  pre- 
cious original  autograph  map  in  the  collection  of  Mr. 
S.  L.  M.  Barlow,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  it. 

Cham  plain  attaches  the  name  "Chouacoit"  to  two  rivers, 
one  against  the  Saco  in  his  record,  but  not  on  his  map, 
the  other  one  acrainst  Boston  Harbor  and  the  Charles,  not 
named  in  his  record,  but  preserved  on  his  map.  The  ex- 
planation is  at  hand,  —  "  Choucaoit "  is  preserved  to  us  in 
the  descriptive  term  "Cohasscc,"  the  dialectic  equivalent  of 
"  Quonno-hassun-et,"  chain  of  rocks.  Rocks  or  reefs  are 
at  both  places ;  and  the  Indian,  if  asked  what  he  called  the 
group,  would  have  replied  at  either  locality  in  the  same 
expression,  "  Cohasset."  At  both  places  Champlain  or  some 
of  the  parties  of  De  Mont's  men  observed,  —  but  more 
abundantly  than  elsewhere,  and  with  crowds  of  people,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Charles,  —  the  vineyards,  as  well  as  plant- 
ings of  corn  and  beans,  squashes,  cabbages,  and  tobacco. 
The  Dutch  have  left  us  the  name  "  Wyngaerden  "  or  some 
modification  of  the  name  on  their  maps,  and  other  na- 
tionalities  have  borrowed  from  them  or  brought  down  to 
us  the  name  which  the  Northmen  gave.  All  unite  in 
testifying  to  the  presence  of  the  vine  and  the  fruit,  which 
suggested  to  Leif  the  name  "  Vinland." 

It  is  interesting  in  this  story  of  the  masked  Vinland  to 
find  that  Gosnold,  in  1602,  called  Woman's  Land  (No'th 
man's  land  ?)  Martha's  Vineyard.  What  is  noio  Mar/'Z/a'j 
Vineyard  was  originally  Mar/zV/s  Vineyard,  so  called  by 
Captain  Martin  Prinne,  who  visited  the  region  the  year 
after  Gosnold  was  there.     It  bore  this  name,  according 


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54 

to  the  Rev.  Thomas  Mayhcw,  down  to  1650,  when  it 
was  changed  to  "  Martha's,"  and  the  name  Gosnold  gave 
to  Nonian's  Land  given  up.  Now  what  have  we  before 
us  ?  Two  navigators  attach  names  to  islands,  as  if  they 
had  heard  that  they  were  parts  of  Vinland,  —  one  giving 
his  own  Christian  name  to  distinguish  it. 

So  the  name  in  one  form  or  another  has  lingered 
on  our  shores,  and  to-day  Vinland  is  preserved  in  the 
two  designations  of  "  Vineyard  Sound,"  and  "  Martha's 
Vineyard." 

XI. 

I  have  told  you  something  of  the  evidence  that  Leif 
Eriksen  was  the  first  European  to  tread  the  great  main- 
land southwest  of  Greenland.  I  have  done  as  well  as 
I  could,  in  the  time  at  my  disposal,  to  present  the  evi- 
dence bearing  upon  the  question  whether  or  not  he  tvas 
the  first  European  to  place  his  feet  on  the  shores  of 
Massachusetts  Bay. 

If  I  go  back  a  little  way,  it  will  be  only  in  the  fewest 
words  to  tell  you  how  worthy  a  man  Leif  was. 

His  ancestry  were  of  the  early  pilgrims,  or  puritans, 
who,  to  escape  oppression,'  emigrated,  50,000  of  them  in 
sixty  years,  from  Norway  to  Iceland,  as  the  early  Pilgrims 
came  to  Plymouth.  They  were  not  of  the  Vikings,  —  the 
class  that  conducted  predatory  excursions  over  the  then 
known  seas. 

They  established  and  maintained  a  republican  form 
of  government,  which  exists  to  this  day,  with  nominal 
'  Grotius,  with  D.inish  researches  before  him,  :ays  it  was  in  874. 


55 

sovereignty  in  the  King  of  Denmark;   and  their   flag, 
like  our  own,  bears  an  eagle  in  its  folds. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  a  colony,  of 
whom  Lcif's  father,  a  Norwegian  earl,  and  his  family 
were  members,  went  out  from  Iceland  to  Greenland.  In 
about  999  Leif,  a  lad  at  the  time  of  his  father's  emigra- 
tion, went  to  Norway,  and  King  Olaf,  impressed  with  his 
grand  elements  of  character,  gave  him  a  commission  to 
carry  the  Christianity  to  which  he  had  become  a  convert 
to  Greenland.  He  set  out  at  once,  and  with  his  soul  on 
fire  with  the  grandeur  of  his  message,  within  a  year 
accomplished  the  conversion  and  the  baptism  of  the 
entire  colony,  including  his  father.  Mis  high  soul  was 
inspired  with  Bjarni's  story  of  a  land  away  to  the  south- 
west, to  which  in  stress  of  weather  fourteen  years  before 
he  had  been  driven.  He  bought  Bjarni's  ship,  virtually 
acquired  his  log,  and  set  out.  He  had  only  to  look  for 
three  prominent  points.     We  have  heard  his  story. 

We  think  of  him  as  a  man  of  high  qualities;  the 
Sagas  portray  them.  What  enthusiasm,  what  self-con- 
trol ;  what  capacity  to  rule  men,  make  them  confide  in 
him,  trust  and  love  him ;  what  equipoise,  what  resources, 
what  manly  presence;  what  an  eye,  what  singleness  of 
purpose,  what  courage,  what  reserve  force,  what  strength 
he  must  have  had!     We  think  of  what  he  did> 

I  "  Lcif  was  .1  m,in  strong  and  of  great  stature,  of  dignified  aspect,  wise 
andmoderateinallthinps."— 5w/V//,  p.  loi.  ..„,.      , 

•'  One  of  the  men  asked  Leif  as  they  were  ncaring  Greenland,  Why  do 
you  steer  the  ship  to  that  quarter,  directly  in  the  teeth  of  the  wmd  ?  Le.f 
answered,  '  I  guide  the  hchn,  and  look  out  at  the  same  time  ;  tell  me  if  you 
see  anything  '  .Ml  denied  that  they  saw  anything  at  all  of  particular  impor- 
tance    '  I  am  not  sure,'  said  Leif,  '  whether  it  is  a  ship  or  a  rock  which  I  see 


ri 


m 


56 

Wlio  were  the  people  who  gave  him  birth?  If  you 
would  have  a  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  race,  I  commend  to  you  "  The  Story  of  The  Nor- 
mans," by  Sarah  Orne  Jewctt.  This  ancient  race,  once 
supreme  on  all  the  seas  they  sailed,  has  made  the  world 
of  all  time  its  debtor       more  ways  than  one. 

You  would  scarcely  forgive  mc  if  I  failed  in  such  pres- 
ence as  this  to  call  to  mind  one  Scandinavian,  whose  name 
should  not  be  omitted  on  any  occasion  where  achievements 
in  navigation  of  American  waters  arc  remembered.  The 
ancient  Roman  ships  that  brought  tribute  to  the  Tiber, 
and  the  triremes  that  bore  Agrippa  and  Antony  and 
Cleopatra  at  the  battle  of  Actium,  as  well  as  the  mer- 
chant marine  of  Tyre  and  Venice,  were  all  Jlat-boltomcd. 
It  was  the  Northmen  who  invented  the  keel  that  made 
possible  navigation  of  the  stormy  waters  of  the  Atlantic. 
That  was  long  ago.  It  revolutionized  the  service  of  the 
ocean.  Who  that  has  seen  the  Lofoden  fishing-fleet  of 
to-day,  stately,  majestic,  beyond  language  to  picture,  has 
not  felt  the  power  with  which  the  inventions  of  North- 
men long  ago  stamped  the  single-masted,  square-.sailcd, 
dragon-headed,  ancient  ship  of  Norway }     But  in  recent 

in  the  distance.'  They  .ill  presently  see  it  .ind  pronounce  it  to  be  a  rock. 
l.eif  had  so  much  sharper  eyes  than  all  the  others  that  he  s.iw  men  upon  the 
rock.  .  .  . 

"On  reaching  the  wreck,  the  c.iptain  was  asked  his  name  —  'Thorer!  — 
and  yours?'  •  l.eif.'  'Are  you  the  son  of  Eirek  the  Red,  of  Hrattahlid?' 
Leif  told  him  he  was,  and  .added,  '  I  wish  now  to  offer  you  all  a  iil.icc  in  my 
ship,  and  to  take  also  as  much  of  your  goods  as  my  ship  will  carry.'  .  .  . 
When  Leif  lent  his  ship  to  hi.s  brollicr  to  go  to  V'inland,  lie  charged  him  first 
to  'fetch  away  from  the  rock  all  that  Thorer  left  there.'" — Smith,  pp. 
104-107. 


!■ 


57 

times  one  man,  himself  bearing  the  name  wc  honor  to-day, 
is  remembered  in  every  land  for  his  contributions  to  the 
development  of  shipsof-war,  not  less  than  vessels  for  the 
merchant  service.  Mc  is  still  living,  working  his  twelve 
hours  a  day,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four. 

To  him  we  owe  the  screw  ;  to  him  the  telescopic  chim- 
ney, and  the  idea  of  placing  the  boilers  and  machinery  of 
steamships  below  the  level  of  the  sea,  where,  in  men-of- 
war,  they  would  be  beyond  the  reach  of  shot  and  shell.  To 
him  are  wc  indebted  for  numerous  devices  in  submarine 
warfare,  and  for  the  hot-air  engine,  and  many  others  I 
might  name.  Of  one  invention  more  only  will  I  speak. 
Most  of  you  remember  the  great  revolution  in  naval  war- 
fare which  came  with  the  appearance  of  the  "Monitor" 
at  Hampton  Roads.  One  cannot  recall  the  relief  which 
the  achievements  of  that  vessel  brought  to  millions  of 
agonized  hearts  at  a  critical  period  in  the  history  of  the 
late  war,  without  feeling  that  our  country's  well-being 
was  at  that  time  very  closely  knit  with  the  genius  and 
unselfish  devotion  of  John   Ericsson. 

If  you  would  see  how  a  Briton  regards  the  ancient 
Norsemen,  the  contemporaries  of  Lief  and  his  country- 
men, hear  what  Mr.  Laing,  a  Scotchman,  or,  more  strictly, 
a  native  of  the  Orkneys,  having,  with  us  and  these  kin- 
dred of  ours,  a  common  inheritance  of  blood  from  Scan- 
dinavia, says  :  "  All  that  men  hope  for  of  good  government 
and  future  improvement  in  their  physical  and  moral  con- 
dition ;  all  that  civilized  men  enjoy  at  this  day  of  civil, 
religious  and  political  liberty,  —  the  British  Constitution, 


■ 


I 


58 

representative  logislnture,  the  trial  by  jury,  security  of 
property,  freedom  of  miiul  and  person,  the  influence  of 
public  opinion  over  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  the 
Reformation,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  —  all  that  is  or  has  been  of  value  to  man  in  modern 
times  as  a  member  of  society,  either  in  Kurope  or  in 
America,  may  be  traced  to  the  spark  left  burning  upon 
our  shores  by  the  Norwegian  barbarians." 

A  man  of  these  people,  a  scholar  of  the  times,  a  man  of 
faith,  a  gentleman,  an  atlilete,  a  man  of  deeds  and  renown, 
was  Leif.     To  him  a  monument  has  been  erected. 


XII. 

In  thus  fulfilling  the  duty  we  owe  to  the  memor)'  of  the 
first  European  navigator  who  trod  our  shores,  we  do  no 
injustice  to  the  mighty  achievement  of  the  Genoese  Dis- 
coverer under  the  flags  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  who, 
inspired  by  the  idea  of  the  rotundity  of  the  earth,  —  so 
long  before  demonstrated,  but  practically  before  his  time 
exercising  little  influence  on  the  jjhilosophy  of  maritime 
discovery,  —  and  with  the  certainty  of  reaching  Asia  by 
sailing  westward  sufficiently  long,  set  out  on  a  new  and 
entirely  distinct  enterprise,  having  a  daring  and  a  con- 
ception and  an  intellectual  train  uf  research  and  deduc- 
tion at  its  foundation  quite  his  own. 

While  the  Norse  adventurers  undoubtedly  had  all  tlie 
geographical  knowledge  of  the  time,  it  is  possible  that  they 
regarded  Vinland  as  only  a  ver)'  distant  prolongation  of 
the  coast,  going  out  as  they  conceived  north  and  west  from 


I 


59 

Norway.     Their  oceanic  world  was  the  North  Atlantic 
The  men  of  enterprise  of  southern  Europe,  at  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  could  profit  by  all  the  accumulations 
of  knowledge  of  the  five  hundred  years  following  the  bold 
navigators  of  the  time  of  Olaf.     Marco  Polo  had  been  in 
the  Hast.     Southern  Kurope  had  otherwise  learned  of  the 
Oriental  world.     The  Northmen  had  sliarcd  in  the  Cru- 
sades ;  tlvjir  concjuests  might  be  traced  on  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean.     Maritime  discovery  had  led  far  down 
the  coast  of  Africa.     A  voyage  of  anticipated  great  length 
now  involved  heavy  outlay.     The  aid  of  the  State  or  of 
wealthy  patrons   must   be  invoked.     Men  who   contcm- 
plated   or  advocated   voyages  of   discovery   deemed  it  a 
duty,  before  bringing  their  projects  to  the  attention  of 
royal  sources  of  patronage,  to  seek  information  in  every 
accessible  and  promising  quarter.     We  have  an  example 
of  a  later  date  in  the  "Brief"  of  Frobisher,  in  the  interest 
of  the  northwest  passage,  and  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert 
in  the  search  for  Norumbega,  and  the  appeal  of  llakluyt's 
"  Western  Planting,"  and  John  Smith's  efforts  to  estab- 
lish  an    English    Colony  in    New   England.     Columbus 
oui^/it  to  have  visited  Iceland,  if  he  could,  whether  he  did 
or  did  not;  and  so  of  Ireland  or  Britain,  or  the  Faroes, 
and  other  accessible  countries  that  would  enable  him  to 
strengthen  his  appeal.     Whatever  he  might  have  found 
in  Thule  could  at   the  best  have  afforded  him  little  aid 
in  the  line  of  the  mighty  vision  of  reaching  the  land  at 
the   antipodes   by  sailing  westward   from   the  Pillars  of 

Hercules. 

I  submit  a  map  of  the  world  as  known  at  the  time  of 


60 

Columbus,  on  which  are  sketched  the  veiled  American 
continents  north  and  south,  of  which  before  him,  except 
the  part  known  to  Northmen,  no  one,  not  even  Columbus, 
had  a  dream.  Columbus  did  not  sail  toward  Vinland, 
whatever  he  may  '  ive  learned  of  its  discovery. 

Aside  from  the  splendid  personal  (|ualities  of  Lcif 
which  would  challenge  admiration  in  any  age,  it  is  not 
impossible  that  some  have  been  led  to  accredit  to  him  a 
measure  of  rank  as  a  discoverer  which  he  would  have 
instinctively  repudiated.  What  he  would  have  patiently 
heard  said  of  himself  would  have  been  something  like 
this:  He  had  seen  in  Hjarni's  story  internal  '.vidence  of 
its  truth,  had  appreciated  its  possible  stupendi)us  signifi- 
cance, had  the  intrepidity  to  act  upon  it,  had  bought  his 
ship,  and  had  sailed  away  to  verify  his  relation.  To  this 
end  he  had  given  a  year  of  his  life.  1  le  had  found  what 
Hjarni  had  said  was  true,  and  in  the  most  essential  service 
had  prepared  the  way  for  the  settlement  of  the  country 
which  Bjarni  first  saw. 

Through  Leif  and  Bjarni  the  American  continent  was 
discovered  by  Northmen,  and  Leif  was  the  first  European 
to  set  foot  on  its  shores,  —  the  first  to  tread  the  soil  of 
Massachusetts. 

Boston  will  welcome  the  proposition  to  set  up  in  1892 
a  fit  statue  to  Columbus. 


s# 


We  unveil  to-day  the  statue  in  which  Anne  Whitney 
has  expressed  so  vividly  her  conception  of  the  leader  who, 
almost  nine  centuries  ago,  first  trod  our  shores.  Do  not 
be  surprised  if  you  fail  to  distinguish  between  your  ideal 


<D^ 


_      CO       ^■'^^B^ 


«t- 


DIE  OCEANrSCHE  SGITE  DESSEKAIM 


Jht  li^ht  Ini&i,  OittiCi 

OJ  Ikl  fiortkeii.   Lorttoix, 
l<  n  »n/  n   ti 
The.     A/oyti  /VIci 


<?{i      "c^r 


DIE  OCEANrSCHE  SBITE  DES  BEKAIM'SCHEN  GLOBUS  VOM  MHRE  1492 


/      Liu.   Aruei-cCu.  oj  U/liiciA  It'ttie. 
The.     Notk  r^ei\. 


,1*1 


6i 

hero  and  the  artist's  creation.  Such  a  creation  Appleton 
and  Longfellow  would  have  set  up  in  Boston.  Could  we 
but  hear  their  acclaim  at  such  fulfilment  of  their  desire, 
how  rich  would  it  be  with  the  benedictions  of  Art  and 
Song!  Such  a  memorial  Ole  Bull,  earliest  of  all,  con- 
ceived and  dreamed  of,  worked  and  sang  for.  This  is  the 
consummation  the  loyal  heir  to  his  name  and  purpose  for 
years  has  longed  and  labored  and  prayed  for.  I  believe 
it  is  worthy  of  Leif  and  of  Boston. 


APPENDIX. 


■■ 


I     I 


APPENDIX. 


DIGHTON  ROCK. 

The  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  sur- 
face of  the  rock  since  the  copy  of  the  inscription  by 
Mr.  James  Winthrop  in  1788  suggest  a  doubt  of  the 
great  age  of  the  characters  inscribed.  The  rock  is 
fissile,  liable  to  erosion  from  alternate  frost  and  sun- 
shine, alternate  immersion  in  water  more  or  less  salt, 
and  exposure  to  the  air.  It  may  be  questioned  whether 
a  hundred  years  hence  the  figures  will  not  have  wholly 
vanished.  In  view  of  these  considerations,  it  may  be 
asked,  Could  the  original  inscription  have  been  produced 
nearly  nine  hundred  years  ago  ? 


B. 


LATITUDE    OF    VINLAND. 

For  the  different  views  there  have  been  able  writers 
among  the  Icelandic  and  Danish  scholars.  The  ancient 
Icelanders  had  no  clocks.  They  had  a  kind  of  sun-dial,  or 
substitute  for  one,  in  a  system  of  day-marks.  Their  prin- 
cipal division  of  time  was  into  eighths  of  a  day,  watches 


66 


of  throe  hours  each.     Had  they  used  the  lessor  divisions 
of  time,  there  might  have  been  no  question  among  the 
antiquaries.     Erasmus    Rask,  the  great  Danish  philolo- 
gist, wrote    Mr.  Wheaton    to    this   effect  in    Pecombor, 
1831  :  "Since  only  the  greater  and  not   the  hour  divis- 
ions of  the  day  according  to  the  old    Icelandic  method 
are  mentioned  in   the  Sagas,  the  length  of  the  shortest 
day   will    always    be   liable    to    various    intcri)rctations." 
The   more    important    readings    of    the   Sagas   rest   on 
whether  the  shortest  day  of   the   year  should  begin  at 
half-past    seven    in    the    morning,   and   end   at   half-past 
four    in    the    afternoon,    holding    the    sun    above    the 
horizon    for   nine   hours ;    or    begin    at   si.x  o'clock,  and 
end   at    three  o'clock,  holding  the   sun   up  for  only  six 
hours.     The   discussion    of  the    latitude   of    Vinland    is 
thus  brought  to  revolve  around   the  meaning    of  a   sin- 
gle  ancient    Norwegian    or     Icelandic    word,   eyktarstad, 
here    translated    half-past   four    in    the    afternoon.      If 
their  shortest  day  was,   in   reality,  onl\   six   hours  long, 
the    place   of   observation    of   its    length,    whatever   else 
may  be  involved,  could   not  have   been  to  the  south  of 
Labrador. 

I  insert  here  a  diagram  from  Rafn's  "  Americas  Op 
dagel.se,  etc."'  It  was  prepared  by  Finn  Magnusen,  of 
the  Northern  Antiquaries.*  It  may  afford  some  insight 
into  the  disputed  question.  It  will  be  observed  that 
certain  dotted  divisions  of  eighths  correspond  with  early 

'  Discovery  of  Americi  in  the  ycir  ten  hundred,  from  the  oM  Norse  manu- 
scripts of  C.  C.  R.ifn.  Copenhapen.  1H41. 

'  See  Voyages  of  the  Northmen  to  America  I'rince  Soc.  Edited  by  Rev. 
Dr.  Slaftcr. 


67 

directions  for  sailing,  having  the  North  Star  for  the  un- 
clumging  starting-point.  Tiic  halving  of  these  watches 
and  the  division  of  the  period  between  half-past  one  and 
half-past  four  into  thirds,  which  Magnusen  suggests  may 
relate  to  sailors'  dog-watches,  arc  presented  on  the  chart. 
These  divisions,  to  which  certain  secular  alternative 
names  have  been  given,  show  one  way  out  of  which 
the  confusion  in  the  terminology  may  have  arisen. 


The  present  condition  of  the  problem  of  the  latitude 
of  Vinland,  as  determii.  d  by  the  length  of  the  shortest 
day,  may  be  thus  summed  up :  — 

Rask  pronounced  it  impossible  of  solution.  Bishop 
Sveinson,  of  Skalkolt.  did  not  understand  it.  Torfaeus.  in- 
structed  by  the  Bishop  and  the  writings  of  Finn  Johnson, 


68 

jit  first  thought  the  day  must  have  been  six  hours  long. 
Forstcr  intorprcted  t.ie  passage  in  the  Saga  to  mean  eight 
hours.  Vidalin,  and  after  him  Rafn,  held  the  day  to  be 
nine  hours  long,  which  would  give  a  latitude  for  Lcif's 
place  of  observation  between  41  and  43'.  Humboldt 
accepted  this  view.  So  did  Finn  Magnusen,  whose  dia- 
gram is  given  above.  Teringskiold  made  it  ten  or  twelve 
hours  long,  carrying  V^inland  far  to  the  south. 

Wc  need  not  wonder  that  Bancroft,  Palfrey,  Cabot,  and 
other  careful  students  of  the  Norse  story  have  felt  the 
shadow  of  the  prevailing  doubt.  It  is  not  a  new  per- 
plexity. It  has  existed  for  centuries.  Is  it  impossible  to 
escape  from  it  without  rejecting  the  whole  account  as  a 
myth  ?  No  one  may  lightly  set  aside  the  crucial  test  of  the 
latitude.     Let  us  see  out  of  what  the  doubt  has  arisen. 

The  earlier  Sagas,  including  those  relating  to  the  dis- 
covery of  America  by  the  Northmen,  were  committed  to 
writing  toward  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  1387 
to  1395,  and  constitute  the  "  Flatcy  Hook,"  a  parchment 
folio,  which  later  came  into  the  possession  of  Bishop 
Sveinson,  who  parted  with  it  to  Frederick  III.,  of  Den- 
mark,  about  1650.  The  king  found  certain  obscurities  in 
the  language  of  the  "  Flatey  Book,"  which  it  was  deemed 
important  to  have  cleared  up.  He  accordingly  sent  a 
young  man,  Torfaeus,  to  obtain  the  needed  correct  under- 
standing. This  is  what  Torfaeus  says:  ''First,  On  the 
authority,  if  I  rigiiti.v  i'nderstood  him,  of  Brj-niulf 
Sveinson,  the  most  learned  of  all  the  bishops  of  Skal- 
holt,  to  whom  I  was  sent  while  yet  a  youth,  in  the  year 
1662,  with  royal  letters  from  my  gracious  master,  King 


[ 


..-V- 


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T 


rlw^ 


b'-t-;-/-^' 


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Ir'' 


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J  u 


IK 


69 

Frederick  the  Third,  for  the  purpose  of  leanunj^  the 
genuine  s,\nifuation  of  tia-  more  diflkult  atuicnt  words 
atul  phrases,  atul  l/un  from  the  necessary  correspondence 
of  the  time  of  sunset  with  that  of  sunrise.  ...  I  had  long 
ago  given  t!ic  meaning  that  the  sun  [on  the  shortest  day 
in  Vinland]  passes  six  hours  above  the  horizon." 

The  highest  autliority  among  the  scholars  of  Iceland  had 
failed  to  make  the  matter  clear  to  Torfaeus.     The  mean- 
ing  of  "  eyktarstad,"  wliaUi'cr  that  mi^ht  be,  associated 
with  "dagmalastad"(<^m7//<rv/-/mt)  upon  which  two  the 
sun  shone  for  Leif  on  the  shortest  day  in  Vinland.  was  to 
Icelandic  scholars  apparently  indeterminable.     Torfaeus 
did  not  doubt  the  general  story  of  the  discovery  by  the 
Northmen.     The  difTiculty  of  a  Vinland,  with  its  vines 
and  meadows  and  forests  and  sand-beaches.  on  the  north- 
eastern coast  of  Labrador,  which  is  at  the  best  a  sheet  of 
desolation,  did  not  deter  him'.     There  was  to  him.  some 
xvhcre,  a  Vinland   discovered  by   Northmen.     Me  enter- 
tained  with   Forster  the  po.ssibility  of  a  shortest  day  of 
eii^ht  hours,  whic  h  would  have   carried  Vinlaiul  to  the 
northern  half  of  Newfoundland  on  the  east,  than  which 
only    Labrador   is   more   hopelessly  destitute   of  forests 
and  meadows  and  sand-beaches.     The  Sagas  speak  o'  .t 
as  flat  rock.- the   Ilelluland  visited  by  Leif.     Torfaeus 
was  apparently  so  absorbed  with  the  second  half  of  the 
sentence   that   he  did  not  consider   adequately  the  first 

.  Th.  accomp.-»nyinK  mo.t  recent  map  by  F.  Leuthner,  nnllolin  of  the 
A„,erLan  Oeo^^p.^lca.  Society  for  December.  ^^ •-;^:^\X^'^Z 
which  the  shortest  day  is  six  ho.,rs  lon«.  -  from  lat,t  do  ^'^  "  ^°  '  ^^^^ 
hours  for  the  shortest  day  wouhl  be  farther  south  on  the  coas  of  al,  ador, 
and    igh   hours  would  indicate  the  northeastern  shore  of  Newloundland. 


1^ 


iOi 


70 

half.     The  whole  sentence  reads  (Beamish's  translation) 
as  follows :  — 

"  Day  and  night  were  more  nearly  equal  there  than  in 
Greenland  or  Iceland;  for  on  the  shortest  day  was  the 
sun  above  the  horizon  from  half-past  seven  in  the  fore- 
noon  till  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon." 

Let  us  look  at  the  latitudes :  — 

Southern  Icel.-ind  is       6t°  to' 

Southern  Greenland go 

Northern    Labrador,   including    the   southern 

shore  of  Hudson's  Straits 58°  to  60" 

Southeastern  New  England  (Vinland)  .     .     !    4,°  to  43° 

The  contrast  between  the  days  and  nights  of  southern 
Greenland  (60°)  where  Leif  passed  his  boyhood,  and  the 
days  and  nights  in  northern  Labrador  (60")  shrinks  to 
nothing ;  while  the  contrast  in  latitude  between  that  of 
Greenland  and  that  of  the  region  of  Massachusetts  is 
nearly  20°,  —  quite  enough  to  arrest  observation. 

MEANING   OF    "  EVKTARSTAD." 

Down  to  the  date  of  the  completion  of  the  Flatey 
Book  the  time  of  eyktarstad  was  half-past  three  in  the 
afternoon  (see  Vigfusson, "  Old  Norse  Dictionary").  This 
would  give  for  the  length  of  the  shortest  day  in  Vinland 
seven  hours,  which  would  place  it  between  Belle  Isle  and 
northern  Labrador,  where  the  Vinland  of  the  Sagas,  with 
its  forests  and  mild  winters,  plainly  could  not  have  been. 
Yet  "eyktar-stad"  was  an  old  Norse  word,  familiar  in 
Norway,  carried  with  the  pilgrims  when  they  emigrated 
to  Iceland,  and  from  there  carried  by  the  emigrants  to 
Greenland.     It  was   something  correlative  to  breakfast- 


S-i 


71 

time, — that  is,  as  far  from  mid-day  as  breakfast-time  was. 
It  was  something  the  sun  shone  upon  on  the  shortest 
day  of  the  year  in  Vinland,  as  it  did  on  the  same  day  at 
sur.rise,  —  at  breakfast-time,  — the  dagmala-stad. 

The  suggestion  forces  itself  upon  one  that  "  eyktar," 
like  "  dagmal,"  "  meant  primarily  a  meal,  and  came  to 
mean  the  time  of  day,"'  as  Vigfusson  says,  "  when  the 
meal  was  taken."  Vigfusson  further  says,  "  In  Norway 
yk(  means  a  luncheon  taken  about  half-past  three.  But 
the  passage  in  '  Edda,'  that  autumn  ends  and  winter  be- 
gins at  sunset  at  the  time  of  eykt,  confounded  the  com- 
mentators who  believed  it  to  refer  to  the  conventional 
Icelandic  winter,  which  (in  the  old  style)  begins  with  the 
middle  of  October  and  lasts  six  months.  In  the  latitude 
of  Reykholt,  the  residence  of  Snorri"  (who  was  the  col- 
lector and  author  of  the  "  Book  of  Edda  ")  "  the  sun  sets 
at  this  time  [the  middle  of  October]  at  half  past  four:' 
(Vigfusson's  Dictionary.) 

Half  past  three  and  half  past  four  !  A  discrepancy  of 
an  hour  in  two  records  of  the  same  event ! 

This  time  of  half-past  four  had  been  fixed  by  the  as- 
tronomer Torlacius,  who  determined  that  on  the  1 7th  day 
of  October  at  Skalholt,  the  seat  of  the  most  prominent 
school  of  Iceland,  not  far  from  Reykjavik,  and  less  dis- 
tant from  the  place  of  assembly  of  the  Althing,  the  sun 
sets  at  half-past  four,  with  a  commencement  at  midnight 
exactly  opposite  to  high  noon. 

Next  came  Finn  Magnuscn.  October  was  the  eighth 
month.  A  sailor's  watch  on  shipboard  was  three  hours, 
which  was  one  eighth  of  twenty-four.     This  learned  Ice- 


--^'l'' 


iandic  scholar  regarded  "  eykt "  as  meaning  eighth.  A 
ship's  watch  was  an  eykt.  The  cardinal  points  to  the 
sailor,  north,  east,  south,  and  west,  furnished  beginnings 
for  four  of  them.  Points  halfway  between  furnished  four 
more.  Then  Magnusen  introduced  others  midway  be- 
tween these,  making  sixteen  divisions  in  all.  To  these 
he  added  the  dog-watches  of  the  sailor'  and  the  terms  of 
the  church,  of  much  smaller  scope,  and  over  the  whole 
distributed  the  various  names  given  on  his  chart.  Eyk- 
tarstad  to  Finn  Magnusen  was  also  at  ha/f.pasl /ojir. 

This  chart,  at  first  sight,  challenges  acceptance,  it  is  so 
complete  — so  symmetrical.  It  rests,  unhappily,  on  two 
assumptions  :  first,  that  the  word  "  eykt  "  meant  dghih ; 
and  second,  that  the  ancient  Norwegian  and  Icelandic 
day  commenced  at  12  o'clock  at  night.  Of  the  first,  Vig- 
fusson  (in  his  Dictionary)  says:  "The  word  " eykt "  can 
have  no  relation  to  "  atta  "  —cighC  As  to  the  second,  we 
shall  probably  see,  if  we  have  not  mistaken  IMagnusen's 
meaning,  that  he  erred  in  making  the  ancient  day  of  Ice- 
land commence  at  midnight. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question,  How  came  halfpast 
three  to  be  changed  to  half.past  fotir  ? 

The  intelligent  Norwegian  sailor  to  whom  I  have 
already  referred  tells  me  — precisely  what  the  chart  of 
Magnusen  asserts,  and  what  the  astronomical  determina- 
tions of  Torlacius  confirm  —  that  — 

•  These  xvatcl.cs  are  given  at  no  usual  Icelandic  meal-time,  but  between 
half-past  two  .ind  half-past  three,  p.  m..  of  our  time.  They  are  at  one  period 
of  the  d.ay  only  while  the  dog-watches  of  the  existing  usage  among  sailors 
are  at  two  periods,  -  one  early  in  the  morning,  from  4  to  6,  and  the  other  in 
the  evening,  from  6  to  8. 


trssss&sssaam^ 


12, 

The  time  of  the  afternoon  lunch, 

sunset  on  the  17th  of  October  in  Southern  Iceland, 

"      "      "  half-past  four  of  our  time,  and 

"      "      "  the  end  of  the  secular  day  of  ancient  usage  — 

are  all  one  and  the  same.     Other  educated  Norwegians 
(one,  a  graduate  of  Christiania)  tell  me  the  same.     "  How 
do  you  know  it  ?     In  the  early  times  you  had  no  clocks 
or  watches."     To  this  the  sailor  replied :  "  An  afternoon 
meal  is  universal  among  Norwegian  peasantry.     It  is  at 
the  end  of  the  day."     "  But  sunset  varies,"  said  I.     "  Yes  ! 
that  is  true ;  but  half-past  four  is  the  time  of  the  after- 
noon meal,  halfivay  between  dinner,  the  mid-day   meal 
at   tivelve,  and   supper,  the   night   meal   at   nine.     That 
docs  not  vary  among  the  common  people.     It  is  a  hu- 
man xuant.     It  is  our   modern    Norwegian    eftasvar,  the 
afternoon   meal."      On    turning  to   Vigfusson's  "  Icelan- 
dic Dictionary  "  of  the  language  of  the  Viking  age,  I  find 
under  E\v.-x,  first,  that  the  word  as  used  in  the  old  Sagas  is 
derived  from  a  root  auk,  from  which  comes  our  augment, 
and  the  German  auch ;  and  means  also,  added,  extra  (and 
in   Vigfusson's  "Prose  Reader,"  to  boot);  secov.d,  that  the 
word  "probably  first  meant  the  eke  meal,  answering  to 
English   afternoon   Itmch  (or  our  old-time  "tea"?),  and 
thence  came  to  mean  tlie  time  of  day  when  the  meal  was 
taken ;  third,  that  stad  as  applied  to  meals  means  meal- 
time.     If   we    turn    to     familiar    dialectic    correspond- 
ences we  find  that  /  and  eh  of  the  old  Teutonic  dialects 
are  sometimes  found  to  be  equivalents;  so  that  eft  and 
eykt  (ycht)  are  seen  to  be  not  very  far  from  each  oth  -r. 
The  time  at  which  the  meal  called  by  the  Norwegians 


74 

of  to-day  "  eftasvar,"  afterward  —  the  extra  meal,  or 
afternoon  lunch  —  is  now  taken  in  Norway,  and  has  been 
taken  from  time  immemorial,  is  half-past  four  of  our 
time.  As  eft  and  ykt  are  only  dialectic  modifications 
of  the  same  root,'  it  is  clear  that  eyktarstad  coincided  in 
usage  with  eftasvar  —  with  half -past  four — with  the  end  of 
the  day  at  the  beginning  of  the  ancient  Icelandic  winter. 

It  may  be  thought  scarcely  necessary  to  go  beyond  the 
philological  argument  and  the  astronomical  calendar  of 
the  latitude  of  Skalholt,  to  point  out  the  identity  of  half- 
past  three  of  the  ancient  Sagas,  the  eyktarstad,  with  the 
half-past  four  of  hereditary  usage  in  Norway.  But  as  the 
subject  has  been  so  long  discussed,  I  may  be  pardoned  for 
submitting  what  must  be  regarded  as  a  demonstration  of 
what  Leif  understood  "  eyktarstad "  to  mean. 

Let  me  present  first  a  translation  of  the  single  sentence 
that  has  become  of  such  significance. 

Meira  var   thar  jafnclacgri  en    4  Graenlandi  edr 

More    was    there    equalityofday-and-night    than    in     Greenland    or 

Island! ;    s61  hafdi  thar  eyktar-stod  ok     dagmdla-stad     urn 

Iceland ;  sun  hare  there  afternoon  lunch-time  and  breakfast-time  on  the 

skamdegi. 
shortest  day. 

One  sees  at  a  glance  that  the  fir-^t  half  of  the  sentence 
—  more  was  there  equality  of  day  and  night  than  in 
Greatland  or  Iceland — virtually   precludes    Torfaeus's 

'  Vigfusson  says  the  root  auh,  "in  ancient  Norse  or  Icelandic,  is  spelled 
eykdax  eykth  "  [  =  evtt,ykl,  or yc/it'}. 

Eyktar  has  its  equiv.ilent  in  southern  Norway  in  e/tas  and  aften;  in  Eng- 
lish, after ;  in  Dutch,  achter ;  in  German,  nach. 


1 


75 

understanding  of  the  second  half.  The  absurdity  of  ac- 
cepting in  the  same  breath  the  characteristics  of  the 
Vinland  of  Leif,  and  the  region  indicated  by  the  short- 
est day  as  of  either  six  hours  or  seven  or  eight  hours 
has  already  been  pointed  out.  If  Vinland  must  have 
had  for  its  shortest  day  only  six  hours,  the  whole  story 
must  have  an  entirely  new  understanding. 

The  second  branch  of  the  sentence  remains.  What 
did  "  eyktar-stad  "  mean  to  Leif  ?  It  meant  to  him  what  it 
meant  to  his  Norse  ancestors  and  to  his  Norse  and  Ice- 
landic contemporaries.  The  term  ''  dagma/a-s^acl"  applied 
to  one  extreme  of  the  day,  of  which  "  cyktar-s/atr'  was  the 
other  extreme,  and  both  were  equally  distant  from  mid- 
day. The  term  "  dagmala-stad  "  has  survived  as  brcakfasl- 
time.  We  have  seen  the  modern  meaning  of  "eyktar- 
stad,"  but  that  meaning  is  at  variance,  as  a  point  of  time, 
with  the  meaning  of  early  record,  by  a  whole  hour.  It 
applies  to  an  afternoon  meal,  between  the  midday  meal 
and  supper. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  happy  explanation  of  the 
source  of  all  the  confusion:  — 

In  1S14  and  181 5  a  Scotch  gentleman,  Dr.  Henderson, 
went  on  horseback  attended  by  adequate  escort  with 
suitable  equipment,  entirely  around  the  coast  of  Iceland, 
and  crossed  the  country  in  various  directions  four  times. 
He  had,  as  a  scholar  and  philanthropist,  supervised  the 
printing  of  the  Bible  in  Icelandic,  and  as  the  agent  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  undertaken  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  Bible  to  such  of  the  families  of  Iceland 


i 


I  ! 


76 

as  had  not  before  possessed  it.  It  became  his  duty  to 
visit  the  clergy  and  learned  men,  including  the  officials, 
and  also  the  people  of  all  ranks  in  their  homes.  This 
labor  occupied  him,  except  during  the  winter,  for  two 
years.  To  no  Englishman  or  Scotchman  probably  before 
or  since  has  it  been  possible  to  become  better  acquainted 
with  the  general  cultivation,  the  habits,  the  domestic  life, 
the  inherited  ways,  the  usages,  of  the  Icelandic  people, 
than  he  was.  His  opportunities  do  not  seem  ever  to 
have  been  equalled  by  any  man  of  any  nationality.'  He 
published  his  journal.     In  that  he  remarks:  — 

"  The  Norwegians  who  first  went  over  to  Iceland  were 
sprung  from  some  of  the  most  distinguished  families  in 
the  land  of  their  nativity.  .  .  .  Their  predominant  char- 
acter is  that  of  unsuspecting  frankness,  pious  contentment, 
and  a  steady  liveliness  of  temperament,  combined  with  a 
strength  of  intellect  and  acutencss  of  mind  seldom  to  be 
met  with  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Their  /anr^nage, 
dress,  and  mode  of  life  have  been  iuvariahly  the  same 
during  a  period  of  nine  ccnluriesr  (Page  iS  :  Perkins  & 
Marvin  edition,   Boston,   1831.) 

Dr.  Henderson  passed  some  time  at  Grimstad,  encamp, 
ing  near  the  residence  of  a  large  family  of  much  con- 
sideration.  "  They  lived  at  a  distance  of  thirty  miles 
from  their  nearest  neighbor.  They  were  in  the  midst  of 
a  desert,  except  the  grass  lands,  on  the  horizon  of  which 
were  here  and  there  snow  and  ice  capped  volcanic  peaks, 
of  fantastic  appearance,  and  in  almost  every  direction." 

'  Tlie  .icconip.inying  m.ip,  exccuteil  by  Dr.  Meiulerson,  sliow.s  the  extent  of 
Ills  journeyings.  Finn  .M.n-nuscn  quotes  Henderson, -app.irently  without 
wholly  appreci.iting  the  significance  of  the  revelation  he  ni.ikes. 


,.■. 


■  »<>p ■ '  "■'■'  ■  ■■♦    ^ 


'^^l^....^t'^^^-% 


5 


^...^ 


,C*'*r-^'  * 


mmtm 

l<i      I   II 


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a 

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^•^v,  ,;,.     .,'-:'-'>1i      ^'"js;;,: 


■MM*** 


in 


m- 


KIT:    * 


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T 


77 

He  says  (p.  95)  of  these,  "  The  most  remarkable  was  Hcr- 
iliibrcid,  or  the  broad-shouldered  volcano,  so  called  from 
the  shape  of  the  crater,  which  is  distinctly  visible  from 
this  place.  This  mountain  forms  the  meridian  day-mark 
of  the  Grimstad  family." 

"  Few  of  the  Icelanders  being  in  possession  of  watches, 
the  only  sun-dial  they  make  use  of  is  the  natural  horizon,' 
—  which  they  divide  into  eight  eciual  points  called  day- 
marks,  availing  themselves  of  certain  peaks  or  projections 
of  the  mountains;  or,  in  the  absence  of  these,  they  erect 
pyramids  of  stones  on  the  corresponding  heights.     Most 
of  these  kinds  of  pyramids  had  originally  been  raised  by 
the  first  settlers  from  Nonvay,  and  have  been  held  in  repair 
from  generation  to  generation ;  *  tcfhieh  einitmstanee  luill 
account  for  the  difference  of  time  betzceen  the   Icelandic 
computation  and  tha^  in  common   use  with  us.     Their 
divisions  arc  as  follows  — 

1.  Midnight      ...  .     .    about  1 1  o'clock   p.m. 

2.  Morning  vigil   .     .  ,     .        "        2       "        A.M. 

3.  Mid-morning  or  shepherd's 

rising-hour "        S  "  *•*'• 

4.  Day "        8  '|  A.M. 

5.  High  d.iy,  or  noon     ....  "11  "  a.m. 

6.  Nona "        «  "  P-«- 

7.  Mid-evening "       S  "  ''•*'• 

8.  Night "       8  "  P.M." 

Let  us  take  the  three  principal  points,  and  place  them 

'  The  d.-»y  is  in  Iccl.-ind  divided  .nrcording  to  the  position  of  the  sun  above 
the  horizon.  These  fixed  tmdition:>l  marks  are  called  "  dags-miirk,"  <i'i/v'-w.Jr*j, 
and  are  substitutes  for  the  hours  of  modern  times.  —  l\i;fiissoii,  under  Dagu. 

»  Those  day-marks  .are  Iradition.al  in  every  f.arm,  and  many  of  them  no 
doubt  date  from  the  earliest  settling  of  the  country.  —  Ibid. 


78 

side  by  side  with  the  corresponding  points  on  Magnusen's 
chart. 

Henderson.  Finn  Magnusen. 

S  o'clock  A.  M.                        corresponds  with  6  o'clock. 

II       "              high-day,  or  noon     "             "  12  o'clock,  or  mid-day. 

8       "              at  night                      "              "  9  o'clock  at  night. 

It  is  clear  that  an  hour  must  be  added  to  the  time  ac- 
cording to  the  ancient  day-r-  .,  .s  to  convert  them  into 
the  corresponding  day-marks  of  true  time.  An  hour 
added  to  half-past  three  makes  it  half-past  four,  and  the 
beginning  of  the  hour  correspondingly  distant  from 
mid-day  is  half-past  seven.  The  day  between  them 
is  nine  hours  long. 

This  is  in  keeping  with  the  companion  observation 
given  in  the  Saga,  that  the  day  a^id  night  were  more 
nearly  equal  in  VinUmd  than  in  Greenland  or  Iceland. 
It  is  in  keeping  with  the  presence  of  grape-vines,  Indian 
corn  growing  wild,  forests  of  timber,  and  meadows,  and 
general  mildness  of  winters  in  the  latitude  ascribed  to 
Vinland.  It  is  in  keeping  with  the  geographical,  topo- 
graphical, and  hydrographical  features  of  the  region 
as  described  in  the  Sagas.  It  is  in  keeping  with 
the  numerous  Indian  population  of  the  region,  as  ob- 
served by  Cortereal,  Verrazano,  Gomez,  Allefonsce, 
Thevet,  Champlain,  John  Smith,  and  the  Pilgrims  and 
Puritans. 

There  is  no  other  quarter  of  the  globe  which  supplies 
all  these  required  conditions  of  Vinland. 

Eyktar-stad  is  said  to  have  been  fixed  "  in  the  laws  " 
as  the  end  of  the  natural  day  at  half-past  four,  p.  m.    (Cabot 


in, 


79 

page  12.)'     May  not  the  language  of  Rafn's  note  ("An- 

tiquitatcs  Amcricanae,")  admit  the  notion  that  its  sense 

was   merely  a  declaration    of   immemorial  usage?     The 

people  of  Iceland  were  obedient  to  the  hereditary  usages 

of  the  early  emigrants  from  Norway.     The  national  dials 

—  the  day  marks— which  they  had  been  familiar  with,  and 

in  their  every<lay  life  had  be- n  guided  by,  were  the  same 

day-marks,  perpetuated  from  generation  to  generation,  that 

Vigfusson  mentions,  and  that  Dr.  Henderson  had  found 

in  iiis  house-to-house  visitation  all  over  Iceland.     They 

had  observed  that  the  day  of  our  clocks  and  watches,— 

the  day  of  twenty-four  hours,  commencing  at  our  twelve 

o'clock  at  night,  and  having  its  mid-day  twelve  hours  later, 

which  was  introduced  among  them,  in  the  extension  of 

the  more  modern  European  designations,  found  the  time 
of  iheir  national  afternoon  lunc/i  — the  time  when  the  sun 
sets  at  Skalholt  on  October  17  — the  half-way  point  be- 
tween the  mid-day  meal  and  supper  —  the  "  eyktar-stad  " 
of  Leif  —  at  half-past  four ;  an  hour  later  than  would  be 
reckoned  ivith  their  mid-day  meal,  according  to  their  day- 
marks,  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

In  Northern  Norway,  whence  the  Icelanders  went  out, 
and  from  which  the  '"day-marks"  were  transferred  to 
Iceland,  half-past  four  by  our  watches  would  be  half-past 
three  by  their  day-marks. 

'  See  note.  p.  io8.  There  are  in  Vigfusson's  Dictionary,  also  in  the 
"  Antiquil.ites"  of  Rafn,  p.  43^  -intl  repeatedly  in  Gr.-igds,  allusions  n  the 
work  upon  Icel.indic  church  laws  or  usages  by  Finn  Johnson;  and  this  writer 
is  riled  as  high  .authority  in  more  recent  discussions  of  the  meaning  of  cyktar- 
stad.  1  have  not  seen  the  work  of  Finn  Johnson.  In  the  "  Index  of  Words 
and  Phrases  in  the  Ancient  Laws  of  Iceland,"  Gr.-lgds,  vol.  ii.  (C,V<-.i-  Juris 
hlandorum  Antuiuissimus),  evkt  is  defined  '-trUwriumr  No  mention  of 
/'r*/,;r.fto/ism.Adc  in  the  "Index."  or  in  the  body  of  the  recorded  laws  or 
enactments  of  the  Althing. 


8o 


In  southern  Norway,  where  clocks  are  used,  the  after- 
noon lunch  is  the  preservca  habit  of  the  peasantry,  and  at 
the  same  hojir  as  in  northern  Norway,  but  by  (heir  clocks 
at  half-past  four} 

Had  Dr.  Henderson  been  told  that  eyktarstad  was  at 
half-past  four,  and  had  he  asked  the  projM-ictor  of  the 
estate  at  Grimstad  where  the  sun  stood  at  half-past  four, 
there  would  have  been  indicated  to  him  a  correspond- 
ing point  in  the  day-marks  on  the  horizon,  which  his 
watch  would  have  told  him  was  half-past  three. 

Had  Dr.  Henderson  waited  on  the  proprietor  at  half- 
past  four  on  the  1 7th  of  October,  he  would  have  found 
him  at  his  afternoon  lunch  at  sunset — eyktarstad. 

The  church,  as  its  custom  has  been,  appropriated 
the  word  eykt,  and  made  it  the  equivalent  of  trihorium, 
"  a  time  of  three  hours."  It  was  this  trihorium  of 
the  church  that  perplexed  Torfacus  and  his  venerable 
instructor.  Bishop  Svcinson,  —  out  of  which  came  the  day 
of  six  hours ;  and  one  may  see  how  our  time  of  an  hour 
later  gave  to  Torfaeus  the  doubt  in  favor  of  the  day  of 
eight  hours,  and  also  how  the  day  of  se\'cn  hours  may 
have  arisen  to  still  others.    (See  Vigfusson,  under  Evkt.) 

Henderson's  chart  shows  at  a  glance  how  eyktarstad 
and  half-past  fotir  were  identical.  This,  as  we  have 
seen,  gives  a  day  of  nine  hours. 

The  eyktarstad  and  dagmalastad,  that  is,  the  afternoon 
lunch-time  and  the  breakfast-time  of  Lcif  at  \'iniand  on 
the  shortest  day  of  the  year,  occurring  at  sunset  and  sun- 
rise, determines  the  latitude  of  Leif's  houses  to  have  been 
between  41"  and  43°. 

'  The  time  ot  tlie  lunch  at  half-past  four  is  called  ef/asvar.  Its  equivalent 
is  now  written  by  some  Norwegian  peasants,  afUnsmud,  —  which  is  Danish. 


8i 


C. 


ANDRfi   TIIEVET. 


In  1556  we  see  Andre  Thevet,  a  Frenchman,  approach 
the  shore.  He  called  the  point  "  Cape  Baxe,"  and  it  was 
later  called  by  others  "  Cabo  de  Baxos."  "  Bax "  is  the 
natural  abbreviation  of  "  Bacca-es,"  Algonquin  for  "  little 
bay,"  which  became  "  Bax  "  just  as  "  Pautuck-es-et,"  as 
Dr.  Trumbull  notes,  became  "  Pautuxet."  It  qualified 
Cape  Cod  Bay,  with  the  Gurnet  for  an  opposite  head- 
land. "  Baxos"  is  a  double  diminutive,  —  "  Bacca-es-es," 
a  very  little  bay,  —  a  term  qualifying  the  harbor  of  Prov- 
incctown,  as  compared  with  the  larger  Cape  Cod  Bay. 

Thevet  is  said  to  have  been  credulous,  and  some  ques- 
tion his  trustworthiness.  Let  us  look  at  the  other  side. 
He  has  come  up  in  nine  days'  sail,  after  passing  twenty- 
odd  days  in  the  Sargasso  Sea,  —  the  first,  I  believe,  to 
observe  and  describe  it,  —  where,  in  February,  1556,  he 
says  he  beheld  the  extraordinary  phenomenon  of  a  star 
with  a  tail  (a  comet)  in  the  east.  I  had  the  curiosity  to 
make  inquiry  of  competent  authority  about  a  comet  in 
the  east  in  February,  1556,  observable  from  the  latitude 
of  the  Sargasso  Sea.  I  wrote  to  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  of 
Cambridge,  the  astronomer  of  Cordoba,  of  the  Argentine 
Republic,  and  Professor  Pickering,  of  Harvard,  and  they 
were  good  enough  to  go  over  the  records  of  that  dis- 
tant time.  They  wrote  me,  confirming  the  statement  of 
Thevet  in  all  its  points. 

It    was    Thevet   who,   as  relating   for   himself    or  for 


83 


others,  as  he  says  he  somcthncs  did,  described  Nantasket 
(Aiayascon),  as  having  the  form  of  a  huinan  arm,  and 
recorded  tliat  Norumbega,  on  the  Charles,  was  in  the 
forty-third  degree  of  latitude.  Thevet  was  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Ncponset.  He  gives  its  Indian  name,  "  Anordie," 
and  its  exact  latitude,  42°  11'.  He  found  a  river  at  the 
entrance  to  Narragansett  Bay;  it  was  called  "Anordie"  (or 
"Arnodie").  This  is  pure  Algonquin,  "  An-au-da."  Cur- 
rent of  water  there  was  the  answer  to  the  question,  "  What 
do  you  call  that?"'  The  name  "Accadie"  was  the  answer 
to  a  like  question,  —  "  Ahke-da,"  Land  there.  How  natu- 
ral that  this  should  confirm  the  conviction  that  No- 
rumbega  was  an  island,  as  Allefonsce  thought,  though 
he  was  not  clear  whether  its  most  southern  point  was  at 
Buzzard's  Bay,  or  Delaware  Bay,  or  even  Charleston. 

It  was  Thevet  who,  in  a  storm,  sought  refuge  inside 
of  Point  J uuide  (Judy),  the  name  still  preserved  by  the 
inhabitants  of  southern  Rhode  Island,  —  the  modern 
Point  Judith, — from  which  he  sailed  along  the  coast  of 
Baccaleos,  past  the  islands  of  the  St.  Croi.x,  the  Gurnet 
(Cross-a-naes),  and  Nantasket.  This  coast  of  Baccaleos 
of  Thevet  is  recognized  on  Dutch  maps  of  this  region 
as  late  as  1660  in  the  name  "  Cabbeljous,"  a  perversion 
in  the  position  of  letters  not  unusual  in  obeying  the 
law  of  "  facility  of  utterance."  It  is  applied  to  points 
south  of  Cape  Cod  peninsula.  We  have  such  perversion 
in  "Conanicut,"  familiar  to  us  all  as  "  Canonicut,"  —  in 
"  Anticosti  "  for  "  Natiscotec  "  the  old  Indian  name  of 
the  time  of  Jacques  Carticr  (1535)- 

'  See  Tlievcl's  "  Cosmographie." 


,.^»)- 


I'l   _ 


t; 


83 

Point  Judith  is  called  on  one  map  "  Cabeliaus  Hocck;" 
on  another  (1666)  "Cabbcljous"  is  apparently  applied 
to  the  Island  of  Naushon.  On  another  (Italian  or  Portu- 
guese?) we  have  "I.  Cabcliano"  and  "C.  Cabcliano."  On 
Montanus's  Map,  "  Cabbeliaus  Eyl."  All  these  names  are 
in  the  same  region, — the  Vineyard  Sound.  Brevoort  (Ver- 
razano)  says  "Cabeleau"  is  the  Batavian  name  of  the  cod- 
fish. Batavia  was  a  dependency  of  the  Dutch.  "  Bacca- 
laos  "  is  to  this  day  the  .Spanish  name  of  codfish.  The 
Germans  call  the  codfish  "  Kabeljau."  All  these  have 
their  original  in  the  Indian  descriptive  name,  Bacca-loo. 
The  English  equivalent  was  given  by  Gosnold,  —  the 
literal  translation  of  bacca-loo  —  bay  food,  or  off-shore 
food,  —  cod.  "Baccalieu"  was  carried  up  to  the  cast 
coast  of  Newfoundland  on  the  Sebastian  Cabot  map 
of  1544.  Point  Judy  is  the  most  southern  point  to 
which  I  have  found    the   name  attached. 

The  Pilgrims,  sailing  for  Virginia,  and  brought  here 
by  agencies  they  did  not  comprehend,  landed  at  this 
point  before  going  on  to  Plymouth.' 


1 


D. 

WOOD'S   IIOI.L. 


Vix.  Joseph  S.  Fay  has  written  a  pamphlet  to  show  that 
the  word  "Hole,"  as  pronounced,  which  is  now  written 
"  Holl  "  for  the  post-office  on  the  mainland,  Wood's  I  loll, 

'  Of  this  and  of  tlie  reasons  why,  and  of  various  other  positions  here  in 
summary  for  the  first  time  presented,  a  paper  now  in  press  will  contain  the 
evidence. 


84 

—  the  0  pronounced  as  in  for, —  applied  to  eminences  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  not  to  waterways,  like  Quick's  Hole 
and  Robinson's  Mole,  or  the  inner  harbor  at  Holmes'  Hole. 
This  view  may  not  so  well  apply  to  "  Powder  Hole"  and 
to  "Butler's  Hole,"  near  the  end  of  Monomoy  Island. 
The  Icelandic  word  for  "  hill "  is  holl.  The  root  is  the 
source  of  "  UUes"  in  "  Ulles-water"  at  Patterdale,  of  the 
Lake  District  in  the  north  of  England.  It  is  the  equiva- 
lent of  our  "hill." 


INDIAN   CORN   FOUND   GROWING   WILD    IN   VINLAND. 


The  Sagas  relate  that  King  Olaf  gave  to  Leif  — it 
must  have  been  witii  his  commission  to  carry  Chris- 
tianity to  Greenland  —  two  young  Scotch  ^  servants,  a 
man  and  maid,— Haki  and  Haekja.  After  the  wedding 
of  Thorfinn  and  Gudrid  at  Brattahlid,  Lcif's  paternal 
mansion,  the  host  presented  these  servants  to  Thorfinn, 
who  took  them  with  him  on  his  expedition  to  Vinland. 
While  lying  against  the  peninsula  of  Cape  Cod  — 
Furdustrand  — Nauset  Beach  —  Thorfinn,  that  he  might 
know  the  quality  of  the  neighboring  land,  sent  out  his 
fleet-footed  servants  to  run  for  three  days  over  the 
region,  and  return  and  report  wiiat  they  had  seen,  — 
the  ship  lying  at  anchor  during  their  absence.  They 
brought   back,   one   a   bunch    of   grapes,   the   other   an 

'  Scotia  tlien  included  Ireland.  The  servants  may  have  been  Irish,  as 
rendered  by  X'igfusson. 


85 


"ea^'  0/  corn."  They  had  two  months  earlier  seen  the 
" nai'  sown"  (Beamish)  young  corn  at  Hop.  Ear  of 
corn  is  the  translation  of  the  Icelandic  word  hveili-ax 
by  J.  Toulmain  Smith.  Ueamish  (Rev.  Ur.  Slaftcr: 
Prince's  Soc.)  translated  tiie  same  expression  "■car  of 
w/wal."  The  doubtful  point  is  this:  was  it  Indian 
corn  —  zea  mays  —  or  was  it  wheat  —  triiicum  vul- 
garcl     Now,  in  reply:  — 

1.  Ax,  by  itself,  is  Icelandic  for  ear  of  corn  {Vigfus- 
son);  hvcili  is  wheat  {Vigfusson). 

2.  Skcat  (Etym.  Die.)  says  the  word  wheat  is  derived 
from  a  Teutonic  root  which  means  white,  and  qualifies 
the  color  of  the  flour  made  from  the  grain,  kernel,  or 
corn,  of  whatever  kind.  "  Hviti  "  is  white  as  applied 
to  the  White  River  in  Iceland.  (See  Henderson's 
map.)  "  Hviti-ax "  would  be  Icelandic  for  ^vhite  ear  of 
corn. 

This  is  in  keeping  with  Capt.  John  Smith's  ex- 
pression, "  mayes,  like  Virginia  wheat;"  also  with  the 
early  chroniclers  of  Florida,  who  speak  of  "  Indian 
wheat." 

3.  Indian  corn  {cea  mays)  is  indigenous  to  America. 
It  is  still  found,  reduced  to  a  dark  mould,  but  retaining 
its  form,  in  ancient  Indian  mounds.  I  have  seen  such 
kernels,  apparently  charred.  They  have  been  recently 
found  in  the  very  ancient  remains  of  cities  in  New 
Mexico,  by  Mr.  Gushing. 

Coronado  ate  corn  cakes  at  Zuni  in  1537-40  (Ogilby). 
Champlain  saw  the  growing  corn  in  profusion  along  our 
New-England    coast    early   in    the    17th    century.     (See 


ill 


|!lf 


91^ 


86 

Slaftcr's  "  Champlain,"  Prince's  Soc.  rublications.)  The 
Pilgrims  found  it  on  their  arrival  in  1620.' 

4.  Indian  corn  does  not  ripen  in  Labrador,"  and  of 
course  cannot  perpetuate  itself  there  —  or  grow  wild, 
—  sja// sat/i"sc\i;so\vn"),  as  the  Sagas  relate. 

What  do  these  considerations  show? 

a.  They  show,  first,  that  wherever  Vinland  was,  In- 
dian corn  grew  wild. 

6.  Second,  that  this  condition  prevailed  on  the  coast 
of  Massachusetts. 

c.  Third,  that  the  claims  of  Labrador  as  the  Vinland 
of  the  Northmen  arc  barred  out. 

>  TIic  Pilgrims  found  on  Cape  Cod  that  "corn  had  been  planted  three  or 
four  years  ago."  "They  found  "  also  •  divers  cornfields."  (Davis's  "I'ly- 
mouth.")  Winthrop  obtained  in  1630,  100  pounds  of  corn  from  the  south  side 
of  Cape  Cod.  We  have  on  Verrazano's  m.ap  of  1527,  along  the  inner  coast  of 
Cape  Cod,  "  Talmas,"  —  a  natural  inference  to  one  who  had  never  seen  half- 
grown  Indian  corn,  and  remarked  its  resemblance  to  some  of  the  forms  of 

palm. 

»  According  to  Dr.  Goodale,  Professor  of  liotany  in  Harvard  Lniversity. 


SAGAS 


or 


EIUEK  THE   RED  AND  THORFINN   KARLSICFNI. 


ERRATA. 

^^  homer  not  "house,"  p.  3^.  'oth  line  from  bottom. 

../.  ,e  naakusr  p.  50.     This  n.^me  occurs  on  the  I)e  I.et  map  of  .later 

edition,  that  of  ,(.33=  but  no,  on  the  early  e.ht.on  of  ^^^.J^l^t. 

questioned  whether  the  n.une  does  not  rather  apply  to  an  .sland  oft  the 

coast. 
^^Choucaoitr  p.  53.  9th  line  from  top,  shouUl  be  "  Chouacoit." 
..  Six  o'clock."  p  66.  13th  line  from  top,  should  be  '•  nine  o'clock  " 
7A.,W,p.8,.     The  f.rst   p,.r.tgr..pl>  should   have  followed  the  last  para- 
graph, p.  43- 


The  following  page  is  .i  heliotype  fac-similc  from  the  manus.  ript  of  the 
Codex  Flntcyciisis,  taken  from  the  .\iili<iiiii;ttL's  Aiiiericanae.  It  is  a  part 
of  the  Saga  of  Kirek  ( l';ric)  the  Red,  prolubly  a  copy  from  an  earlier 
nianuscript,  and,  as  Mr.  ICverett  suggests,  first  committed  to  writing  in 
drcenland  within  two  or  three  generations  after  the  time  of  the  persons 
whose  deeds  are  narrated. 


it 


1^^  ax  ttt&oav^d  en.  At  tutruetrlm  v  ontceMr  ^Viwr  en 

p^  ctr,^*^  vi^  Ticett-^kal^a^tr  ^  cc-  tfTa  aild'  ^^  ^  pamaurr 
^  OK  >9>Kt6(ni  allVtpada-  eot  aia  {kcttd  ttt^Hit  mnndft^  o^ 

iUBJint  ar  Vtnnft  taU  3  jio  im^  Az  W  ^a  l^^erC'JI'tii^ 
|lid^6er  twr^  ine:e- WeUt  ^  twn^ui  ftfiat  wan  w  ccdaftr^tr 

I  Ccv  u  BoW'9'  «^  tan  twwir' fe^ap  ^^  abr'^  at  rao'b^wm'k 
^»«wa^»Mrtbo  ^  |»eihr  ieir-^Uid^aJmn  \»5aL-5t3lan»».ifcW' 
'  ifttt inai^% t  ]^t«?ilis  nrrU ^ ki)fti  etfC  s'anat  man  5 
'  (Tim  i^ipalSrirj^uU^^ti  cii  innmreatavnyenA 

^^  5lc^  ., V  .^  ill  «.L  i^^  Irto  ^ 


Q 


ftp  §nBi^  a»tm5  cew^^  tolf  in  ^  ^ 

™^ ~„jA  Of  ^B^*^et>  J  i^ tioWw  ftwM^ 

I  wrnnftT  §beftr  W5  ntabf  ^.  *  p<>i  vt  t  gmirtte  ^  fonttrep 

,  J  Ibt^  atjiii^  »cJ>  td  baftrt  l5iA  ftr]^v  ^^ ^oj&  t3m 

\M  lira  tOmA^  bi  s^ff^o W  otv •  At  F  tn^  eh^^y^ 

i^r •  aw ta»«Ar  l^cll^  twi'ton  Wctm-  jia  u^  ^ jn0i  r  alia? 

i ^uctzArmmll  ttus^d  v  note  aulUt  ?  v  hx^v^lS  en  mau 

wf^  l)ciU  ftrnia  a^  t  f«Au  2r|awft  Icr  arir  ept  ir  c  mfij  K 

ctttia  ^  e  sir  etm  arVmi  bun^^t>  )»a.  (^dmr  ftr^a  Mbtfi^ 


n,-^ 


i'« 


It  t 


SAGA  OF  EIREK  THE   RED. 


THERE  was  a  man  named  Thorvald,  of  goodly  lineage.  Thorvald 
and  his  son  Eirek,  surnamed  the  Red,  were  compelled  to  fly  from 
Jadar,  on  the  southwest  of  Norway,  on  account  of  a  homicide  committed 
by  them.  They  settled  in  Iceland,  at  that  time  thorougiily  colonized. 
The  father  of  Eirek  soon  died,  but  Eirek  seemed  to  have  inherited  some 
portion  of  his  spirit,  for  he  got  into  quarrels  with  his  Icelandic  neighbors, 
of  which  homicide  was  again  the  consequence  ;  though  the  last  quarrel 
seems  to  have  originated  in  an  injury  unjustly  inflicted  upon  him.  Having 
been  condemned  by  the  court,  proceeds  the  narrative,  he  fitted  out  a  ves- 
sel. When  all  was  ready,  those  who  had  been  the  partisans  of  Eirek  in  the 
recent  quarrel  accompanied  him  to  some  distance.  Eirek  informed  thera 
that  he  had  determined  to  seek  the  land  which  Gunnbiorn  had  seen  when, 
driven  into  the  western  ocean,  he  had  found  the  islands  thence  called  the 
rocks  of  Gunnbiorn,  —  saying  that  if  he  found  land  there,  he  would  revisit 
his  friends.  He  set  sail  from  Snaefellsjokul,  a  mountain  on  the  western 
coast  of  Iceland.  At  length  he  found  land,  and  called  the  place  Midjokul. 
Thence  he  coasted  along  the  shore  in  a  southerly  direction,  in  order  to 
observe  whether  the  land  were  habitable.  He  passed  the  first  winter  in 
Eirek'sce  (Eirek's  Island),  near  the  middle  of  Eastbygd  (eastern  habitable 
tract).  In  the  following  spring  Eirek  entered  Eireksfiord  (Eirek's  creek 
or  inlet),  and  there  fixed  his  residence.  During  the  summer  of  the  same 
year  he  explored  the  western  part  of  the  country,  imposing  names  on  vari- 
ous places.  He  passed  the  following  winter  also  in  this  land,  but  in  the 
third  summer  he  returned  to  Iceland.  He  called  the  land  which  he  had 
thus  discovered,  Greenland,  saying  that  men  would  be  induced  to  emigrate 
thither  by  a  name  so  inviting. 

This  event  happened  fifteen  winters  before  the  Christian  religion  was 
estabUshed  in  Iceland.' 

1  It  is  well  known  that  the  Christian  religion  was  est.ililishcd,  through  the  efforts 
of  Olrif,  King  of  Norway,  in  the  year  looo.  The  emigration  to  Greenland,  therefore, 
took  place  in  the  year  985,  and  the  discovery  of  the  country  by  Eirek,  three  years 


I' ' 


,  ■ 


i '  III 


iHnfr 


90 

Hcriiilf  had  a  wife  named  Thorgerd  and  a  son  named  Biarni,  a  youlh 
of  great  promise.  'I'his  young  man  was  seized  with  a  great  desire  to 
travel,  and  was  successful  in  obtaining  both  fortune  and  honor.  He  passed 
the  winters  alleniately  abroad  and  at  home  with  his  father.  Liarni  had 
recently  fitted  out  a  merchant-vessel,  and  had  spent  the  last  winter  in 
Norway.  During  his  absence  it  was  that  Heriulf  had  passed  over,  with 
his  whole  household,  in  company  witii  r.irek,  to  Greenland.  In  the  same 
ship  with  fkriulf  was  a  Christian  from  the  Hebrides. 

Heriulf  fixed  hi  sidence  at  Heriulf-ness ;  he  was  a  man  of  great 
authority.     Eirek  tl       vcd  fixed  his  seat  at  Brattahlid. 

In  all  this  region,  Kirek  possessed  chief  authority.  All  were  subject 
to  his  will.  There  were  his  children,  Leif,  Thorvald,  and  Thorstein  ;  he 
had  also  a  daughter  named  Freydis.  She  was  married  to  a  man  named 
Thorvard,  and  they  lived  at  Gardar,  which  became  subsequently  the 
Episcopal  seat.  She  was  overbearing,  Tliorvard  weak-minded ;  she  mar- 
ried him  for  the  sake  of  his  money. 


EXPEDITION   OF    BIARNI. 

Biarni  during  the  summer  arrived  at  the  port  of  Eyrar  (southwest  of 
Iceland),  his  father  having  just  before  left  the  island.  Biarni,  somewhat 
troubled,  was  unwilling  to  disembark.  When  the  sailors  inquired  what 
course  he  intended  to  pursue,  he  replied,  "  To  do  as  I  have  been  accus- 
tomed, and  spend  the  winter  with  my  father.  I  wish,  therefore,  to  pro- 
ceed to  Greenland,  if  you  are  willing  to  accompany  me  thither."  All 
professed  their  willingness  to  accede  to  his  de:,ires.  Then  said  Biarni, 
"Our  course  seems  somewhat  foolish,  when  none  among  us  has  ever 
crossed  the  Greenland  ocean."  Nevertheless,  they  put  out  to  sea  when 
they  had  refitted  their  vessel.  They  made  sail  for  three  days  until  they 
were  out  of  sight  of  lan<l.  The  fiiir  wind  then  fell,  and  strong  northeasterly 
winds  sprang  up  accompanied  by  thick  fogs.  They  were  borne  before  the 
wind  for  many  days,  they  knew  not  whither.  At  length,  the  light  of  d.ay 
being  once  more  visible,  they  were  able  to  discern  the  (lice  of  heaven. 
They  sailed  one  day  further  before  they  saw  land.    As  they  discussed  what 

c.irlicr  —  namely,  9S2.  The  n.imc5  n(  many  persons  arc  rccordcil  who  accompanied 
1-irek'the  Uedto  Greenland,  and  fixed  their  habitation  there;  out  of  twenty  five 
shii's  which  .lecoinpanied  him,  only  fourteen  reached  Greenland,  the  rest  being  lost 
or  driven  back  to  Iceland.  AmonR  those  which  reached  Greenland,  the  ship  of 
Heriulf,  ihc  lather  of  I'.iarni  IleriuUion,  was  one.  Heriulf  was  kinsman  to  Ingolf. 
the  first  settler  in  Iceland. 


9' 

land  it  was  that  tliey  then  saw,  Biarni  said  that  he  thouglit  it  could  not 
be  Cireenland.  They  asked  liiin  whether  lie  would  wish  to  make  for  land 
or  not.  "  My  advice  is,"  said  he,  "  tlial  we  ajiijioach  nearer  the  land." 
They  did  so,  and  presently  perceived  that  the  land  was  not  mountainous, 
but  covered  with  wood,  and  had  rising  ground  in  many  parts.  Leaving 
the  land  on  the  left  hand,  ^  or  the  larboard,  if  you  like,  —  they  put  the 
ship  about,  with  the  stern  towards  land.  Tlieu  tliey  sailed  two  days  before 
they  saw  land  again.  They  asked  Biarni  wiicllier  he  thought  tliat  tiiis 
was  Greenland.  He  said  that  he  did  not  think  that  this  was  (jreenland 
any  more  than  the  former  land,  "  for  they  told  me,"  said  he,  "  that  there 
arc  great  mountains  of  ice  in  Greenland."  Presently,  drawing  nearer,  they 
percei.ed  that  this  land  was  low  and  level,  and  overgrown  with  wood. 
Then  the  fiiir  wind  flilling,  the  sailors  said  that  they  should  ke  to  land. 
Biarni  would  not  permit  it. 

'i"hey  urged  that  there  was  a  want  of  wood  and  water.  "  You  need 
neither  of  these,"  said  Biarni ;  hence  arose,  however,  some  complaint 
on  the  part  of  the  sailors.  At  length  they  hoisted  sail,  and  turning  their 
prow  from  land,  they  stood  out  again  to  sea;  and  having  sailed  three  days 
with  a  southwest  wind,  they  saw  land  the  third  time.  This  land  was  high 
and  mountainous,  and  covered  with  ice.  They  asked  Biarni  whether  he 
wished  to  land  here.  Me  said  no ;  "  for  this  land  ajipears  to  me  little 
inviting."  Without  relaxing  sail,  therefore,  they  coasted  along  the  shore 
till  they  perceived  that  this  was  an  island.  They  then  put  the  ship  about 
with  the  stern  towards  land,  and  stood  out  again  to  sea  with  the  same 
wind,  which  blowing  up  very  strong,  Biarni  desired  his  men  to  shorten  sail, 
forbidding  them  to  carry  more  sail  than  with  such  a  heavy  wind  would  be 
safe.  When  they  had  thus  sailed  four  days,  they  saw  land  tiie  fourth  time. 
Then  they  asked  Biarni  whether  he  thought  that  this  was  Greenland,  or 
not.  He  answered,  "  This,  intleed,  corresponds  to  the  description  which 
was  given  me  of  Greenland.  Let  us  make  for  land."  They  did  so,  and 
approached  toward  evening  a  certain  promontory.  It  was  on  this  very 
promontory  that  Ileriulf,  the  father  of  Biarni,  dwelt.  Then  Biarni  betook 
himself  to  his  tallier's  house,  and  having  relinquished  a  seafaring  life,  he 
remained  with  his  flithcr  as  long  as  he  lived,  and  after  his  death  took 
possession  of  his  estate. 


EXPEDITION    OF    LEIF    ERICSEN. 

Ix;if,  the  son  of  Eirek,  hail  an  intcr\iew  with  Biarni  Heriulfson,  and 
bought  of  him  his  ship,  which  he  fitted  out  and  manned  with  thirty-five 
men.     Fourteen  years  after  Eirek  the  Red  had  gone  to  Greenland  [that 


92 


is,  A.  D.  99q]  Loif  his  eldest  son  went  to  Norway,  where  he  was  hospitably 
entertaincil  by  King  Olaf.  The  king  was  a  zcaious  Christian,  and  exhorted 
hiiu,  as  he  did  all  pagans  who  came  to  him,  to  embrace  Christianity.  To 
which  rciiiiest  Loif  consented  without  any  difficulty :  and  he  and  all  his 
sailors  were  baptized. 

Lcif  reached  Creenland  with  his  ship  and  crew,  and  projected  the  ex- 
pedition to  the  land  Hiarni  had  seen.  He  reciuested  his  father  Eirek  to 
become  the  leader  of  the  expedition.  Eirek  excused  himself  on  the  score 
of  his  advanced  age,  saying  that  he  could  ill  bear  the  fatigues  and  dangers 
of  the  voy.ige.  Leif  urged  that  the  constant  good  fortune  of  his  family 
would  atlenil  him.  Eirek  yielded  to  this  appeal,  and,  when  all  was  ready, 
rode  down  on  horseback  to  the  vessel,  which  lay  at  but  a  short  distance 
from  his  residence.  The  horse  oYi  which  Eirek  rode  stumbled,  —  whereby 
Eirek  was  thrown,  and  injured  his  foot.  Then  he  said,  "  Fortune  will  not 
permit  me  to  discover  more  lands  than  this  which  we  inh.ibit ;  I  will  pro- 
ceed no  further  with  you."  Eirek  then  returned  home  to  Hraltahlid. 
Leif,  with  his  thirty-five  companions,  went  on  bo.-ird.  Among  them  vis 
a  man  from  the  south  country  [that  is,  a  German]  named  Tyrker  [Dr. 
Kohl  says  liiarni  accompanied  him,  which  is  prob.ibly  an  error]. 

All  being  now  ready,  they  set  sail,  anil  the  first  land  to  which  they  came 
was  that  last  seen  by  Biarni. 

They  made  direct  for  land,  cast  anchor,  and  put  out  a  boat.  H.iving 
landed,  they  found  no  herb.age.  All  above  were  frozen  heights ;  and  the 
whole  sjjace  between  these  and  the  sea  was  occupied  by  b.ire  flat  rocks  ; 
whence  they  judged  this  to  be  a  barren  land.  Then  said  Leif,  "  We  will 
not  do  as  Biarni  ilid,  who  never  set  foot  on  shore  :  I  will  give  a  name  to  this 
land,  and  will  call  it  '  Hclluland '  '*  [that  is,  land  of  broad  stones^  After 
this  they  put  out  to  sea,  and  came  to  another  land.  They  approached  the 
shore,  and  having  cast  anchor,  put  out  a  boat,  and  set  foot  ashore.  This 
land  was  low  and  level,  and  covered  with  wood.  In  many  ]:)laces  where 
they  explored  there  were  wliite  sands,  with  a  gradual  rise  of  the  shore. 
Then  said  Leif,  "  This  land  sh.ill  t.ike  its  name  from  that  which  most 
abounds  here.  It  shall  be  called  '  M.irkland '"  [that  is,  land  of  woods']. 
Then  they  re-embarked  as  quickly  as  possible.  They  put  out  to  sea, 
and  sailed  for  two  days,  with  a  northeast  wind,  till  they  again  came  in 
sight  of  land  ;  ajiproaching  which,  they  touched  upon  an  island  lying  op- 
posite to  the  northeasterly  part  of  the  main  land.  Here  they  landed,  and 
found  the  air  remarkably  pleasant.  They  observed  the  grass  covered  with 
much  dew.  When  they  touched  this  accidentally,  and  raised  the  hand 
to  the  mouth,  they  perceived  a  sweetness  which  they  h.ad  not  before 
noticed.     [Possibly  in  the  sense  of  refreshingly  pure,  —  sweet  water.] 


93 

Returning  to  their  ship,  they  sailed  through  a  bay  which  lay  between  the 
island  and  a  promontory  running  towards  the  northeast,  and  directing 
their  course  westward,  they  passed  beyond  this  promontory.  In  tiiis  bay, 
when  the  tide  was  low,  there  were  shallcnvs  left  of  very  great  extent. 

So  great  was  the  desire  of  the  men  to  land  that,  without  waiting  for  the 
high  tide  to  carry  them  nearer,  they  went  ashore,  at  a  place  where  a  river 
poured  out  of  a  lake.  When  the  tide  rose,  they  took  their  boat  and  rowed 
back  to  the  ship,  and  passed  first  up  the  river,  and  then  into  the  lake. 
Having  cast  anchor  they  disembarked,  and  erected  temporary  h.ibitations. 
Having  subsequently  determined,  however,  to  remain  here  during  the 
winter,  they  built  more  permanent  dwellings,  lioth  in  the  river  and  m  the 
lake,  there  was  a  great  abundance  of  salmon,  and  of  greater  size  than  they 

had  before  seen. 

So  great  was  the  goodness  of  the  land  that  they  conceived  that  cattle 
would  be  able  to  find  provender  in  winter,  none  of  that  intense  cold 
occurring  to  which  they  were  accustomed  in  their  own  country,  and  the 
grass  not  withering  very  much. 

The  quality  in  the  length  of  the  days  was  greater  there  than  in  Green- 
land or  Iceland.  On  the  shortest  day  the  sun  remained  above  the  horizon 
from  half-past  seven  in  the  morning  till  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon.' 

Their  dwellings  completed,  Leif  said  to  his  companions :  "  I  propose 
that  our  numbers  be  divided  into  two  companies,  for  I  wish  to  explore  the 
country;  each  one  of  these  companies  shall,  alternately,  remain  at  home, 
and  go  out  exploring.  Let  the  exploring  party,  however,  never  go  further 
than  that  they  may  return  home  the  same  evening  ;  neither  let  them  sepa- 
rate one  from  another."  It  was  so  arranged.  Leif  himself,  on  alternate 
days,  went  out  exploring  and  remained  at  home.  Leif  was  a  man  strong 
and  of  great  stature,  of  dignified  aspect,  wise  and  moderate  in  all  thmgs. 

It  happened  one  evening  that  one  of  the  company  was  missmg.  Ihis 
was  Tyrker  the  German.  Leif  felt  much  concerned,  for  Tyrker  had  lived 
with  him  and  his  father  for  a  long  time,  and  had  been  very  fond  of  Leif  in 
his  childhood ;  wherefore  Leif  severely  blamed  his  comrades,  and  went 
himself  with  twelve  others,  to  seek  the  man.  When  they  had  gone  but  a 
short  distance  from  the  dwelling  Tyrker  met  them,  to  their  no  small  joy. 
Leif  soon  perceived  that  Tyrker  had  not  his  usu.al  manner.  He  was 
(naturally)  erect  in  countenance,  his  eyes  constantly  rolling,  his  face  hol- 
low his  stature  short,  his  body  spare,  and  he  was  possessed  of  great  skill 
in  e'vcry  kind  of  smith's  work.  Then  said  Leif  to  him,  "Why  have  you 
stayed  out  so  late,  friend,  and  separated  yourself  from  your  companions?  " 
For  some  time  Tyrker  gave  no  answer,  except  in  German,  and  rolled  his 

»  See  Appendix  B. 


il 


94 

eyes  (as  usual)  here  and  there,  and  twisted  his  mouth.  They  could  not 
understand  what  lie  saiil.  After  some  time  he  spoke  in  the  Norse  lan- 
guage, and  said,  '•  I  have  not  been  mueh  further,  but  I  have  something  new 
to  tell  you  ;  I  have  found  vines  ami  grapes."  "  Is  tiiis  true?"  a.ske(l  I.eif. 
"Yes,  indeed,  it  is,"  answered  lie;  "I  was  brought  up  in  a  lanil  where 
there  w.is  ahund.ance  of  vines  and  grajies." 

"  There  are  two  matters  now  to  be  attended  to,  on  alternate  days,  —  to 
gather  grapes,  or  (as  a  means  of  .saving  time  and  trouble)  cut  down  vines, 
and  to  fell  timber  witii  wiiich  we  may  load  the  ship."  The  task  was 
immediately  commenced.  It  is  said  ihat  tiieir  long  boat  was  filled  with 
grapes.  And  now,  having  felled  timber  to  lo.id  their  ship,  and  the  spring 
coming  on,  they  made  all  ready  for  their  dei)arture  [a.  d.  iooi].  Lcif  g.ive 
the  land  a  name  expressive  of  its  good  produce,  anil  calleil  it  "  Viuland  " 
[/.;«i/  (/  jt'i/i,].  Tliey  then  put  out  to  sea,  having  a  fair  wind,  and,  .at 
length,  came  within  sight  of  Greenland  and  her  icy  mountains.  As  they 
approached,  one  of  the  men  asked  I^if,  "  Why  do  you  steer  the  ship  to 
that  (juarter,  directly  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind?"  Ixif  answered,  "  I  guide 
the  helm,  and  look  out  at  tlie  same  time  ;  tell  me  if  you  see  anything."  All 
denied  that  they  saw  anytiiing  at  all  of  particuKir  importance.  "  I  am  not 
sure,"  said  Leif, ''  whether  it  is  a  ship  or  a  rock  w  hich  I  see  in  the  dis- 
tance." They  all  presently  see  it,  and  pronounce  it  to  be  a  rock.  Leif 
had  so  much  sh.irper  eyes  than  .all  the  others,  that  he  saw  men  upon  the 
rock.  "  Now,"  said  Leif,  "  I  am  desirous  of  striving  even  against  the 
wind,  so  that  we  may  reach  those  yonder ;  perchance  they  may  have  need 
of  our  assistance,  and  their  necessity  calls  upon  us  to  render  them  our 
aid  ;  if  they  are  hostile,  there  can  be  no  danger,  for  they  will  be  .iltogether 
in  our  power."  They  make  for  the  rock,  furl  their  sails,  cast  anchor,  and 
put  out  the  other  small  Iwat  which  they  h.id  carried  with  them.  Then 
Tyrker  demanded  who  was  the  captain  of  the  band  (on  the  rock).  The 
captain  answered  that  his  name  was  Thorcr,  and  that  he  was  a  Norwegian 
by  birth.  He  then  asked,  "What  is  your  name?"  Leif  gave  his  name. 
"  Are  you  the  son  of  Kirck  the  Red,  of  lirattahlid  ?  "  Ixif  told  him  that 
he  was.  "  I  wish  now,"  added  Leif,  "  to  offer  you  all  a  place  in  my  ship, 
and  to  take  also  as  much  of  your  goods  as  my  ship  will  carry."  They 
accepted  his  ofTer.  The  vessel  then  sailed  up  Eireksfiord  until  they 
reached  llrattahlid,  where  they  disemb.arked.  Then  Leif  olTorcd  to  Thorer 
and  his  wife,  and  three  of  his  men,  to  take  up  their  residence  with  him. 
He  showed  hospitalities  likewise  to  all  the  others,  as  well  the  sailors  of 
Thorer  as  his  own.  There  were  fifteen  men  thus  preserved  by  Leif,  and 
from  that  time  he  w.as  called  "  Leif  the  Lucky." 

This  expedition  contributed  both  to  the  we.alth  and  honor  of  Leif.     In 


!   J 
1 


95 

the  following  winter  a  disease  attacked  the  company  of  Thorer,  to  which 
that  man  lumsclf  and  many  of  his  companions  fell  victims.  Eirck  the 
Red  also  died  during  that  winter. 


! 


EXPEDITION   Of  TIIORVAI.D. 


There  was  much  talk,  now,  of  the  expedition  of  Lcif;  and  Thorvald, 
his  brother,  considered  that  the  lands  had  been  too  little  cx|)lored. 
Tlien  said  Leif  to  Thorvald,  "  do,  brother,  take  my  ship  to  Vinland ; 
but  first  fetch  away  from  the  rock  all  that  Thorer  left  there."  Thorvald 
did  so. 

Now  Thorvald  made  i)reparations  for  this  expedition  under  the  a\ithor- 
ity  of  his  brother  Ix'if ;  taking  with  him  thirty  companions.  'I'hcy  fitted 
out  the  ship,  and  jiut  out  to  se.a.  Noliiing  is  recorded  concerning  the 
events  of  the  voy.ige  before  their  arrival  at  Lcifsliudir  [or  Leifsbooths, 
which  was  the  name  given  to  the  dwellings  erected  by  Leif]  in  Vinland, 
where,  the  ship  being  drawn  ashore,  they  passed  the  winter  [1002-3], 
supporting  themselves  by  catching  fish. 

In  the  ensuing  sjiring  Thon-.ild  desired  his  men  to  make  ready  the 
ship,  and  selected  some  to  go  in  the  ship's  boat  along  the  western  coast, 
and  to  explore  it  through  the  summer.  The  country  seemed  fair  and 
woody,  there  being  but  little  distance  between  the  forests  and  the  ocean, 
and  much  white  sandy  shore.  There  was  a  great  number  of  islands  and 
numerous  shallows. 

They  found  no  habitations  of  men  or  beasts  there,  except  in  .an  island 
far  west,  where  they  saw  a  single  wooden  shed.'  They  found  nothing 
more  of  human  workmanship,  and  in  the  autumn  they  returned  to  Leifs 
booths. 

The  next  summer  [being  a.  n.  1004],  Thorv.ild  with  a  portion  of  his 
company  in  the  great  ship  coasted  along  the  eastern  shore,  and  passed 
round  the  land  to  the  northward.  They  were  then  driven  by  a  storm 
against  a  neck  of  land,  and  the  ship  was  stranded  ;  the  keel  was  damaged. 
Remaining  here  for  some  time,  they  repaired  tiieir  ship.  Then  Thorvald 
said  to  iiis  companions  :  "  Now  let  us  fix  up  tiie  keel  on  this  neck  of  land, 
and  let  us  call  the  place  '  Kialamess  '  "  \_kee/  promontory]. 

I  laving  done  .as  he  desired,  they  sailed  along  the  coast,  leaving  that  neck 
to  the  e.-istward,  and  entered  the  mouths  of  the  neighboring  li.ays,  until  they 
came  to  a  certain  promontory  wliic^h  was  covered  with  wood.  Here  they 
cast  anchor,  and  prepared  to  land ;  and  Thon-ald  and  all  his  companions 

'  Beamish  says,  "acom-shcdof  wood." 


Ill 


m 


»     > 


111 


96 

went  on  shore.    Then  saiil  Thonald  ;  "  This  is  a  pleasant  place,  and  here 
I  shouKl  like  to  fix  my  habitation." 

They  aftcrw;u(is,  havinn  returned  to  their  ship,  perceived  on  the  sandy 
shore  of  ll>e  bay,  within  the  promontory,  three  elevations.  They  went 
towards  tliem,  and  saw  tiiree  small  hoals  made  of  skins  (that  is,  canoes), 
and  under  each  three  men.  They  seized  all  of  these  except  one,  who 
escaped  with  his  canoe.  They  killed  those  whom  tiicy  had  taken.  Having 
returned  to  the  promontory,  they  looked  round  and  saw  in  the  inner  hay 
sever.il  elevations,  whic  h  tliey  considered  to  be  habitations.  They  were 
all  afterwards  overcome  by  such  a  heavy  sleep  that  none  of  them  were  able 
to  keep  watch.  After  some  time  a  loud  shout  was  heard  which  roused 
them  all ;  and  the  words  which  roused  them  were  these  :  "  Awake,  Thor- 
vald,  and  all  thy  company,  if  you  wish  to  jireserve  your  lives ;  embark 
immediately,  and  make  the  best  of  your  way  from  the  land.'"  Then  an 
innumerable  multitude  of  canoes  was  seen  aiiproaching  from  the  inner  bay, 
by  which  Thor\-ald's  party  was  immediately  attacked.  Tlien  said  Thor- 
vald  ;  "  Let  us  raise  jirotections  over  the  sides  of  the  ship,  and  defend  our- 
selves as  well  as  we  arc  able,  though  we  can  avail  little  against  this  multitude." 
So  it  was  done.  The  Skraelings  c.nst  their  weapons  at  tliem  for  some  time, 
and  then  precipitously  retired.  Then  Thorv.ald  inquired  what  wounds  his 
men  h.ul  received.  They  denied  that  any  of  them  had  been  at  all  wounded. 
"  I  have  received  a  wound  under  my  arm,"  said  Thorvald,  "  with  an  arrow, 
which,  flying  between  tlic  ship's  side  and  the  edge  of  my  shii-ld,  fastened 
itself  in  my  armpit ;  here  is  the  arrow.  This  will  cause  my  death.  Now 
it  is  my  ad\  ice  that  you  prepare  to  return  home  as  ipiickly  as  possible  ; 
but  me  you  shall  carry  to  the  jiromontory  which  seemed  to  me  so  pleasant 
a  place  to  dwell  in.  Perhaps  the  words  wliich  fell  from  me  shall  prove 
true,  and  I  shall  indeed  abide  there  for  a  season.  There  bury  me,  and 
place  a  cross  at  my  head  and  another  at  my  feet,  and  call  that  |)lace  forever 
more  '  Krossa-ness '  "  [/'n'monfory  shaped  like  a  cross].  At  th.it  time 
Greenland  had  been  converted  to  Christianity  [this  being  a.  d.  1004,  and 
Christianity  having  been  introduced  by  Leif  in  999,  as  we  h.ave  seen]. 
Then  Thonald  expired.  Everything  was  done  according  to  his  direc- 
tions ;  and  those  who  had  gone  with  him  on  this  expedition,  having  joined 
their  companions  at  Leifsbooths,  informed  them  of  all  that  had  happened. 
They  p.xssed  the  following  winter  [tlie  tiiird,  1004-1005]  there,  and  pre- 
pared quantities  of  grapes  to  carry  home.  Karly  in  the  following  sjiring 
[1005]  they  set  sail  for  Greenland,  and  arrived  safely  in  Eireksfiord, 
having  much  melancholy  intelligence  to  convey  to  Leif. 

1  W.1S  tlic  speaker  one  uf  LtiCs  men,  left  bchinJ,  whom  the  Skraelings   had 
adopted  ? 


frti 


97 


SAGA    OF   THORFINN. 

The  Thorfmn  Saga  has  perplexed  every  one,  including 
the  original  scribe,  who  has  attempted  to  adjust  its  parts 
in  harmonious  arrangement.  It  contains  repetitions,  has 
been  subjected  to  transpositions,  and  seems  the  result  of 
an  effort  to  record  all  which  could  be  regarded  as  true  in 
the  Saga,  rather  than  of  an  intelligent  comprehension 
of  the  order  in  which  the  sentences  should  be  set  down. 
The  Saga  itself  bears  witness  to  the  confusion  of  the 
scribe.  He  says :  "  Now  came  they  back  to  Straumfjord. 
...  It  is  some  men's  say  that  Bjarni  and  Gudrid  remained 
behind  and  a  hundred  men  with  them,  and  did  not  go 
further;  but  that  Karlscfni  and  Snorri  (Grimaison)  went 
southwards,  and  forty  men  with  them,  and  were  not 
longer  in  Hdp  than  barely  two  months,  and  the  same 
summer  came  back."     (Beamish.) 

This  passage  is  cited  to  show  that  there  was  perplexity 
in  the  mind  of  the  ancient  recorder,  and  because  it  con- 
tains a  most  important  key  .o  'he  other  paits  of  the 
narration.  It  is  obvious  to  a  careful  reader  that  the 
Thorfinn  Saga  as  a  whole  is  a  collection,  as  if  from 
separate  pieces  of  parchment,  of  brief  relations  by  sev- 
eral different  persons  touching  the  events  of  more  than 
one  expedition,  each  relation  true  in  itself,  but  the  whole 
strung  together  with  imperfect  regard  to  proper  sequence. 
Here  follows  Smith's  version :  — 

Thorfinn  occupied  liis  time  in  merc.intile  expeditions,  and  was  es- 
teemed a  siiilful  merchant.  .  .  • 


I 


98 

Thorfitin  Knrlsefni  married  Cudrid,  and  llicir  nuptials  were  celebrated 
at  llr.ittahlid  diirlnj;  the  same  winter  [1006-7].* 

'I'lie  CDnversation  (reciueiitiy  tunied,  at  llraltddid,  on  the  discovery  of 
Vinland  ilie  Good,  many  saying  tii.it  an  expedition  there  held  out  a  fair 
prospect  of  gain. 

At  Ii'iigtii  riiorfinn  and  Snorri  ni.idc  preparations  for  goinj;  on  the 
cx|)i;(liiion  ijiiilier  in  the  fjliowin;,'  sprinj;.  Hiarni  (Jriniolfson  and 
Tliorli.iil  Ci.inil.iso'i,  already  nieiilioncd,  determined  to  accompany 
tiicin.  Thorvard,  tiie  liusband  of  Freydis  the  daughter  of  Eirek,  went 
wiih  them,  as  did  'I'liorvald  Krickson. 

An  expedition  was  at  lenpjth  fitted  out,  consisting  of  three  ships,  with 
one  huiulrcd  and  sixty  soult,  of  wl)oni  seven  were  women,  and  Insidcs, 
little  sliips  and  the  ecinipment  for  a  colony.  They  took  wiih  them  ail 
kinds  of  live-stock,  for  they  designe<l  to  colonize  the  land.  Thorfinn 
asked  I-eif  to  give  him  the  dwellings  which  he  had  erected  in  Vinland. 
Leif  told  him  that  he  w.mld  grant  him  the  use  of  them,  but  that  he  coulil 
not  give  them  to  him.' 

Then  they  sailed  to  Westbygtl,  and  thence  to  lijarncy;  thence  they 
sailed  for  two  days  toward  the  south.  I..atul  being  seen  they  put  out  a 
boat  and  explored.  They  found  vast  Hat  stones,  many  of  which  were 
twelve  ells  broad.    There  was  a  great  nnmber  t>f  foxes  there. 

They  called  that  land  "  IKlluland."  Thence  Ihcy  sailed  two  days  in  a 
southerly  course,  and  came  l)  a  land  covered  with  wood,  and  in  which 
were  many  wild  animals.  IJeyond  this  land  to  the  southeast  lay  an 
is'and  on  which  they  killetl  a  bear.  They  called  the  isl.ind  "  Hjarney  " 
(Sable  Island  ?),  and  the  land  "  .Markland." 

Thence  they  sailed  toward  the  south  for  two  d.ays,  and  arrived  at  a 
ncss,  or  promontory  of  land.  Tluy  sailed  along  the  shores  of  this 
promontory,  the  land  lying  to  the  .st.nboaril.  These  shores  were  exten- 
sive and  s.in  ly.  They  made  for  land,  and  found  on  the  ncss  the  keel 
of  a  ship,  wherefore  they  called  the  place  "  Ki.darness."  .And  they 
called  the  shores  "  Furdustrandir,"  because  the  coasting  along  them 
seemed  tiresome.' 

'  Thedatc  isasccruiincd  from  ilic  1  ircumstancc  of  its  hcinp  mnilioncd  in  ihc  "ac- 
count of  Kirck,"  etc.,  tliat  Tliorfiiin  and  liis  companions  arrived  in  (liccnland  in  the 
summer  of  the  same  year  .is  that  in  nhlch  (ludrid  returned  to  lirattahlid  after  the 
dgath  of  Thorstein. 

-  T'lfii  the\  tore  out  /■'  tAJ  :mth  the  t)ii/;  and  oimt  to  f.tifs  boolhs,  h,iU  and  wholt, 
atui  lait>l/ii then  their  oUlle.  —  Graenlcndinga  Thatl.  (J.  Eliot  Cabot,  Mass.  Quarterly 
Kcvicw,  March,  1849). 

3  It  secni!)  possible  that  the  expedition  turned  away  at  once  from  Kjalarncu  to 
L.eif 's  hiiuscii. 


III! 


99 


They  afterwards  came  to  a  bay  and  directed  the  course  of  their  ves* 

scis  into  this  bay. 

Kill};  Olaf  Tryh'jjvason  [the  same  whom  we  saw  that  Lcif  visited]  had 
rIvcm  to  Lcif  two  Scots,  a  man  iiaimul  H.ilxi  and  a  won>an  nameil 
Hekia  ;  tiuy  were  swifter  of  foot  than  wild  animals.  'I'Iil-sc  l^;if  had 
given  to  Thorfiiin,  and  tlicy  were  tlien  in  his  ship.  Wlien  they  liad 
passed  beyond  Furdustrandir  lie  pnt  those  Scots  on  sliore,  ihrecting 
them  to  run  over  tlie  country  toward  tlie  soutliwest  for  throe  days,  and 
tlien  return.  Tliey  were  very  li^jiitly  clad.  The  ships  lay  to  ihiring 
their  absence.  When  they  returned  one  carried  in  his  liand  a  bunch  of 
grapes,  the  other  an  ear  of  corn  [a  new  sowen  ear  of  wheat,  lie.uuisii]. 
They  went  on  board,  and  then  the  ships  proceeded  on  their  course 
until  the  land  was  intersected  by  another  b.ay. 

Outward  from  this  bay  lay  an  island,  un  each  side  of  which  there 
was  a  very  rapid  current.  They  named  this  island  "  Straumey"  \_isk  of 
eurre/ifs].  There  was  so  great  a  number  of  cider  ducks  there  that  they 
could  hardly  walk  without  treading  on  the  eggs.     [Monomoy  ?  ] 

Tliey  directed  their  course  into  this  bay  and  called  it  "  Siraumfiord." 
Here  they  disembarked,  and  male  preparations  for  remaining.  They 
had  carried  out  with  them  every  kind  of  cattle,  and  found  abundance  of 
pastur.ige.  The  situation  of  this  pl.ice  w.as  pleasant.  They  occupied 
their  time  chiefly  in  exploring  the  land.  Here  they  passed  the 
winter  [1007-8]. 

That  winter  w.as  very  severe,  ami  as  they  had  no  stores  provided, 
provisions  ran  short,  for  they  could  neither  hunt  nor  fish.  So  they 
passed  over  into  the  island,  hoping  that  they  might  there  find  the  means 
of  subsistence,  cither  in  what  they  could  catch  or  what  should  bo  cast 
ashore.  They  found,  however,  little  better  means  of  subsistence  there 
than  before,  though  the  cattle  were  somewhat  better  off.  Then  they 
pr.ayed  to  God  that  he  would  send  them  food ;  which  pr.iyer  was  not 
answered  .as  soon  as  they  desired. 

About  this  lime  Thorhall  was  missing,  and  they  went  out  to  seek  for 
him.  Their  search  lasted  for  three  days.  On  the  morning  of  the  fourth 
day  Thorfinn  and  Biarni  Grimolfson  found  him  lying  on  the  top  of  a 
rock.  There  he  lay  stretched  nut,  with  his  eyes  open,  blowing  through 
his  mouth  and  nose,  and  mumbling  to  himself.  They  asked  him  why 
he  had  gone  there.  He  answered  that  it  was  no  business  of  theirs  ; 
that  he  was  old  enough  to  take  care  of  himself  without  their  troubluig 
themselves  with  his  aflairs.  They  asked  him  to  return  iiome  with  them, 
which  he  did. 

A  short  time  after  a  whale  was  cast  ashore,  and  they  all  ran  down 


lOO 

eagerly  to  cut  it  up,  but  none  knew  wliiit  kind  of  a  whale  it  was. 
Neither  ilid  Tliorfinn,  though  well  acquainted  with  whales,  know  this 
one.  The  cooks  dressed  the  whale  and  they  all  eat  of  it,  but  were 
all  taken  ill  immediately  afterwards.  Then  said  Thorhall :  "  Now  you 
see  that  Thor  is  more  ready  to  sjive  aid  than  your  Christ.  Tiiis  food  is 
the  reward  of  a  hymn  which  I  composed  to  Thor,  my  god,  who  has 
rarely  forsaken  me."  When  tliey  heard  this  none  would  eat  any  more  ; 
and  so  they  threw  all  the  remainder  of  the  llesh  from  the  rocks,  com- 
mending themselves  to  God.  After  which  the  air  became  milder  ;  they 
were  a-ain  able  to  go  fishing  ;  nor  from  that  time  was  there  any  want 
of  provisions,  for  there  were  abundance  of  wild  animals  hunted  on  the 
mainland,   of   eggs  taken  on   the  island,  and  of   fish  caught   m  the 

And  now  they  began  to  dispute  as  to  where  they  should  next  go.  Thor- 
hall the  hunter,  wished  to  go  north,  round  Furdustrandir  and  Kial.ar- 
ness  and  so  to  explore  Vinland.  Thorfinn  wished  to  coast  along  the 
shore  toward  the  southwest,  considering  it  as  probable  that  there 
would  be  a  more  extensive  tract  of  country  tiie  further  south  they  went. 
It  was  thought  more  advisable  that  each  should  explore  separately. 
Thorhall.  therefore,  made  preparations  on  the  island,  his  whole  com- 
pany consisting  of  nine  only  ;  all  the  others  accompanied  Thorlinn. 

One  day,  as'  Thorhall  was  carrying  water  to  his  ship,  he  drank,  and 
sang  these  verses  :  — 

"  I  left  the  shores  of  F.ireksfiord 
To  seek,  (.)  cursed  Vinl.ind,  thine; 
K:>ch  w.irrior  pledging  there  his  word^ 
Th.it  we  shor.M  here  (|U.iff  choicest  winc. 
Great  Odin,  Warrior  Cod,  see  how 
These  w.itcrp.iils  I  carry  now  ; 
No  winc  my  li]''  have  touched,  Imt  low 
At  humblest  fountain  I  must  bow." 

When  all  was  ready  and  they  were  about  to  set  sail  Thorh.all  s.ing ; 


"  Now  home  our  joyful  course  we  '11  lake, 
Where  friends  untroubled  winters  lead : 
Now  let  our  vessel  swiftly  make 
Her  channel  o'er  the  ocean's  tied  ; 
And  let  the  balilcloving  crew 
Who  here  rejoice  and  praise  the  land  — 
Ij?t  them  catch  whales,  and  cat  them  too, 
And  let  them  dwell  in  Furdustrand." 


lOI 


Thorhall's  party  then  sailed  northward,  round  Furdustrandir  and 
Kialarness.  But  when  they  desired  to  sail  thence  westward,  they  were 
met  by  an  adverse  tempest  and  driven  oft  on  to  the  coast  of  Ireland, 
and  there  were  beaten  and  made  slaves.  And  there,  as  the  merchants 
reported,  Tliorhall  died. 

Thorfinn,'  with  Snorri  Thorbrandson,  and  Biarni  Grimolfson,  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  company,  sailed  toward  the  southwest.  Tiiey  went  on 
for  some  time  until  they  came  to  a  river  which,  ilowing  from  land, 
passed  through  a  lake  into  the  sea.  They  found  sandy  shoals  there,  so 
that  they  could  not  pass  up  the  river  except  at  high  tide.  \It  7uas  very 
shallow,  and  one  could  not  enter  the  river  without  hi^^h  water.     B.] 

Thorfinn  and  his  companions  sailed  up  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  and  called  the  pl.ace  "  H6p." 

Having  landed,  they  observed  that  where  the  land  was  low  corn  grew 
wild  ;  wh'cre  it  rose  higher  vines  were  found  ;  there  were  self-so.vn  fields 
of  wheat.  Every  river  was  full  of  fish.  They  dug  pits  in  the  sand 
where  the  title  rose  highest,  and  at  low  tide  there  remained  sacred  fish 
in  these  pits.  In  the  forest  there  were  a  great  number  of  wild  beasts  of 
all  kinds. 

They  passed  half  a  month  here  \there,  B.],  carelessly,  having  brought 
with  tliem  their  cattle  [and  amused  themselves  and  did  not  perceive  anything 
new.  B.].  One  morning  as  they  were  looking  round  they  saw  a  great 
number  of  canoes,  in  which  poles  were  carried.  These  poles,  vibrating 
in  the  direction  of  the  sun,  emitted  a  sound  like  reeds  shaken  by  the 
wind.  Then  said  Thorfinn,  "  What  do  you  think  this  means  ? '"  Snorri 
Thorbrandson  answered,  "  Perhaps  it  is  a  sign  of  peace  ;  let  us  take  a 
white  shield  and  hild  out  toward  them."  They  did  so.  Then  those 
in  the  canoes  rowed  toward  them,  seeming  to  wonder  who  they  were, 
and  landed.  They  were  swarthy  in  complexion,  short  and  savage  in 
appearance,  with  ugly  hair,  great  eyes,  and  broad  cheeks.  When  they 
had  stayed  some  time,  and  gazed  at  the  strangers  in  astonishment,  they 
departed  and  retired  beyond  the  promontory  to  the  southwest. 

Thorfinn  and  his  companions  erected  dwellings  at  a  litde  distance 
from  the  lake  ;  some  nearer,  others  had  made  theirs  further  off.  [Some 
of  the  houses  were  near  the  water,  others  further  off.  B.]  They  passed 
the  winter  here.     No  snow  fell,  and  all  their  cattle  lived  unhoused. 

One  morning  in  the  following  spring  they  saw  a  great  number  of 
canoes  approaching  from  beyond  the  promontory  at  the  southwest. 
They  were  in  such  great  numbers  that  the  whole  water  looked  as  if  it 

1  This  appc-vrs  to  l.c  the  beginning  of  a  separate  and  original  account  of  the 
voyage  out  fronj  Greenland. 


■J '' 


IHiBi 


i 


102 

were  sprinkled  with  cinders.  Poles  were,  as  before,  suspended  in  each 
canoe.  Tiiorfinn  and  his  party  held  out  shields,  after  which  a  barter  of 
goods  commenced  between  them.  These  people  desired  above  all 
things  to  obtain  some  red  cloth,  in  exchange  for  which  they  ofTercd 
various  kinds  of  skins,  some  perfectly  gray.  They  were  anxious  also  to 
purchase  swords  and  spears,  but  this  Thorfinn  and  Snorri  forbade. 
For  a  narrow  strip  of  red  cloth  they  gave  a  whole  skin,  and  tied  the 
cloth  round  tlieir  heads.  Thus  they  went  on  bartering  for  some  time. 
When  the  supply  of  cloth  began  to  run  short,  Thorfinn's  people  cut 
it  into  pieces  so  small  that  they  did  not  exceed  a  finger's  breadth  ; 
and  yet  the  Skraelings  gave  for  them  as  much  as  or  even  more  than 
before. 

It  happened  that  a  bull,  which  Thorfinn  had  brought  with  him,  rush- 
ing from  the  woods,  bellowed  lustily  just  as  this  traffic  was  going  on- 
The  Skraelings  were  terribly  alarmed  at  this,  and  running  down  quickly 
to  their  canoes,  rowed   back  toward  the  southwest ;  from  which  time 
they  were  not  seen  for  three  weeks.     At  the  end  of  that  time  a  vast 
number  of  the   canoes  of  the   Skraelings  was  seen  coming  from  the 
southwest.     All  their  poles  were  on  this  occasion  turned  opposite  to 
the  sun,  and  they  all  howled  fearfully.     Thorfinn's  party  raised  the  red 
shield.     Tiie  Skraelings  landed  and  a  battle  followed.    There  was  a 
galling  discharge  of  weapons,  for  the  Skraelings  used  slings.     Thor- 
finn's party  saw  the  Skraelings  raise  on  a  long  pole  a  large  globe,  not 
unlike  a  sheep's  belly,  and  almost  of  a  blue  color.     They  hurled  this 
from  the  pole  toward  the  party  of  Thorfinn,  and  as  it  fell  it  made  a 
great  noise.     The  sight  of  this  excited  great  alarm  among  the  followers 
of  Thorfinn,  so  that  they  began  immediately  to  fly  along  the  course  of 
the  river,  for  they  im.igined  themselves  to  be  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
the  Skraelings.     They  did  not  halt  till  they  reached  seme  rocks,  where 
they  turned  about  and  fought  valiantly.     Froydis  going  out   (of  the 
dwellings)   and    seeing    the   followers   of   Thorfinn    flying,   exclaimed, 
"  Why  do  strong  men  like  you  run  from  such  weak  wretches,  whom  you 
ought  to  destroy  like  cattle?     If  I  were  armed,  1  believe  that  I  should 
fight  more  bravely  th.m  any  of  you."     They  regarded  not  her  words. 
Freydis  endeavored  to  keep  up  with  them,  but  was  un.able  to  do  so, 
owing  to  the  state  of  her  health,  —  yet  she  followed  them  as  f.ir  as  the 
neighboring  wood.     The  Skraelings  pursued  her.     She  s.nv  a  man  lying 
dea'd.     This  was  Thorbrand,  the  son  of  Snorri,  in  whose  head  a  fiat 
stone  was  sticking.     His  sword  lay  naked  by  his  side.     This  she  seized 
and  prepared  to  defend   herself.     The  Skraelings  came  up  with  her. 
She  struck  her  breast  with  the  naked  sword,  which  so  astonished  the 


: 


n 


I03 


Skraelings  that  they  fled  back  to  their  canoes  and  rode  ort  as  fast  as 
possible. 

The  followers  of  Thorfiiin  coming  up  to  her  extolled  her  courage. 
Two  of  their  number  fell,  together  with  a  vast  number  of  the 
Skraelings. 

Then  the  followers  of  Thorfinn,  havini,'  been  so  hard  pressed  by  the 
mere  numbers  of  tiic  enemy,  returned  home  and  dressed  their  wounds. 
Considering  how  great  had  been  the  multitude  which  had  attacked 
them,  they  perceived  that  those  who  had  come  up  from  the  canoes  could 
have  been  only  a  single  band,  —  th.at  the  remainder  and  greater  part 
must  have  come  upon  them  from  ambush. 

The  Skraelings  (in  the  course  of  the  battle)  found  a  dead  man, 
and  a  battle-axe  lying  near  him.  One  of  them  took  up  the  axe  and 
cut  wood  with  it ;  then  one  after  the  other  did  the  same,  thinking  it 
an  instrument  of  great  value,  and  very  sharp.  Presently  one  of 
them  took  it  and  struck  it  against  a  stone,  so  that  the  axe  broke. 
Finding  that  it  would  not  cut  stone,  they  thought  it  useless  and  threw 
it  away. 

Thorfinn  and  his  companions  now  thought  it  obvious  that,  although 
the  quality  of  the  land  was  excellent,  yet  there  would  always  be  danger 
to  be  apprehended  from  the  natives.  Tliey  therefore  prepared  to  de- 
part and  to  return  to  their  native  country.  They  first  sailed  round  the 
land  to  the  northward.  They  took  near  the  shore  five  Skraelings 
clothed  in  skins  and  sleeping;  these  had  with  them  boxes  containing 
marrow  mixed  with  blood.  Thorfinn  presumed  them  to  have  been  ex- 
iled from  the  country.  His  people  killed  them.  They  afterwards  came 
to  a  promontory  .abounding  in  wild  animals,  as  they  judged  from  the 
marks  found  in  the  sand. 

They  then  went  again  to  Straumfiord,  where  there  were  abundant 
supplies  of  all  that  they  needed  [<?//</  l/ure  lihis  almiuLviic  of  r.'cryt/iiiig 
that  they  waiitcJ  to  have.     II.]. 

Some  say  that  liiarni  and  Gudrid  remained  here  with  one  hundred 
men  and  that  they  never  went  any  farther  ;  that  Thorfinn  and  Snorri 
went  toward  the  southwest  with  forty  men,  and  that  they  remained  wo 
longer  at  Ht')p  than  b.arely  two  months,  returning  the  samr  summer 
[<r«,/  the  same  summer  came  back.    B.]. 

Afterw.irds  Thorfinn  went  with  one  ship  to  seek  Thorh.all  the  Hunter, 
the  rest  remaining  behind.  Sailing  nortlnvard  round  Kialarness  they 
went  westward  after  passing  that  promont.jry,  the  land  lying  to  their 
left  hand  [larboard].  There  they  saw  extended  forests.  When  they 
had  sailed  for  some  time  they  came  to  a  place  where  a  river  liowed 


w 


III 


Hi 


¥ 


^'m 


104 

from  southeast  to  northwest.    Having  entered  its  mouth   they  cast 
anchor  on  the  southwestern  bank. 

One  morning  the  followers  of  Thorfinn  saw  in  an  open  pl.ice  in  the 
wood  something  at  a  distance  which  glittered.  When  they  shouted  it 
moved.  This  w.is  a  uniped,  who  immediately  betook  himself  to  tlie 
bank  of  the  river  where  the  ship  l.iy.  Thorvald  Eirekson  was  sitting 
near  the  helm.  The  uniped  shot  an  arrow  at  him.  Thorvald,  having 
extr.acted  the  arrow  said  :  "  Wc  have  found  a  rich  land  but  shall  enjoy 
it  little."  After  a  short  time  Thorvald  died  of  the  wound.  The  uniped 
subsequently  retired.  Thorfinn's  crew  pursued  him.  They  presently 
saw  him  run  into  a  neighboring  creek.  Then  they  returned  and  one  of 
them  sang  these  verses  :  — 

"  Pursue  we  did,  — 
"r  is  true,  no  more,  — 
Till'  uniped 
Down  to  tl  c  shore. 

Tlic  wondrojs  m.in 
His  course  ([uite  clear 
Through  ocean  ran  I 
Hear  I  Thorfinn,  heart" 

Then,  having  returned,  llu'y  sailed  towards  the  south  Wuy  dreiv  off 
that,  and  to  the  northward,  li.]  ;  for  imagining  that  this  w.is  the  land  of 
the  unipcds,  they  were  unwilling  to  expose  themselves  to  danger  any 
longer.  They  concluded  that  the  hills  which  were  in  H6p  were  the 
same  as  those  which  they  here  saw  [</«,/  //  also  appeared  to  be  equal 
length  from  Straumjiord  to  both  p/aees.    I!.]. 

They  passed  the  winter  in  Straumfiord.  Snorri  Thorfmnson  had  been 
born  during  the  first  autumn,  and  was  in  iiis  third  ye.ir  when  they  left 

Vinland. 

Setting  sail  from  Vinland  [in  the  spring  of  loio]  with  a  southerly 
wind,  they  touched  at  Markland  and  found  there  five  Skraclings,  of 
whom  one  was  a  grown  man,  two  were  women,  and  two  boys.  Thor- 
finn's party  seized  the  boys,  the  others  escaping  and  hiding  them- 
selves in  caves.  They  took  these  two  boys  with  them,  taught  them 
their  language,  and  baiitized  them.  The  boys  called  their  mother 
Vethilldi  "and  their  father  Uvaege.  They  said  that  chiefs  ruled  over 
the  Skraelings,  of  whom  one  was  named  .'\valldania,the  other  Valldidda  ; 
tluat  they  had  no  houses,  but  lived  in  caverns  and  the  hollows  of  rocks ; 
that  beyond  their  country  was  another,  the  inh.abitants  of  which  were 
clothed  in  white,  and  carried  before  them  long  poles  with  ILigs,  and 


I 


I0.5 


shouted  with  a  loud  voice.     It  was  thought  tliat  this  must  be  Iluitra- 
inanuahuul,  or  lihxnd  it  Mikla. 

They  afterwards  reached  Eireksfiord  in  Greenland.  .  .  . 


FROM  J.VMES  ELIOT  CABOT'S  "  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA   BY 
THE   NORTHMEN." 

[/«  the  Miissachiisell!  Quarterly  Keiiew,  1849  ] 

The  following  translations  are  taken  from  the  TJidiiir^ 
Eirek's  Rauda  and  the  Graeiilcndinga  Thatl.  ("  the  piece 
about  Eirek  the  Red,"  and  "  the  piece  about  the  Green- 
landers  "),  which  are  presented  here  nearly  entire.  These 
pieces  are  fragments  which  have  been  interpolated  into 
a  Life  of  King  Olaf  Tryggvason.  The  manuscripts  are 
of  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  (13S7-1395),  but 
the  style  and  other  evidences  show  them  to  be  copies 
from  much  older  ones. 

It  seems  that  among  a  large  number  of  Icelanders  who 
accomj^anied  Eirek  the  Red  (who  was  the  first  to  make  a 
voyage  to  Greenland,  after  its  discovery  by  Gunnbiorn) 
was  one  Merjulf,  whose  son  Biarni  —  a  merchant  —  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  passing  every  other  winter  at 
home  with  his  father,  and  then  sailing  again  on  distant 
voyages. 

That  same  summer  [9.S5  or]  9S6  came  Riarni  with  his  ship  to  Eyrar, 
in  the  spring  of  which  his  father  had  sailed  from  the  island.  These 
tidings  seemed  to  Biarni  weighty,  and  he  would  not  unload  his  ship. 
Then  asked  liis  sailors  what  he  meant  to  do.  He  answered  that  he 
meant  to  hold  to  his  wont,  and  winter  with  his  father,  "and  I  will  be.ar 
for  Greenland  if  you  will  follow  me  thither."     .Ml  said  they  would  do  as 

'  Small  stories. 


'^ma 


t  : 


106 

he  wished.    Then  said  Hiarni,  "  Imprudent  they  will  thi.ik  our  voyage, 
since  none  of  us  has  been  in  the  Greenland  Sea."  ,        ,       .,    , 

Yet  they  bore  out  to  sea  as   soon   as   they  were  boun,<  and   sailed 
three  davs  till  the  land  was  sunk  ;  then  the  fair  wind  fell  off  and  there 
arose  no'rtli  winds  and  fogs,  and  they  knew  not  whither  they  fared  ;  .and 
so  it  went  for  many  days.     After  that  ihey  saw  the  sun,  and  could  then 
get  their  bearings.    Then  tliey  hoisted  sail  and  sailed  tliat  .lay  before 
tliey  s.aw  land  ;    and  they  counselled  with  themselves  what  land  that 
nii-ht  be.     Hi.irni  said  he  thought  it  could  not  be  Greenland.     '1  hey 
asked  him  whether  thcv  would  sail  to  the  land  or  not.     "This  is  my 
counsel,  to  sail  nigh  to  the  land"  (said  he);  and  so  they  did,  and  soon 
saw  that  the  land  was  without  fells,  and  wooded,  and  small  heights  on 
the  land  ;  and  they  left  the  land  to  larboard,  and  let  the  foot  of  the  sail 
look  towards  land.'    After  that  they  sailed  two  days  before  they  s.aw 
another  land.     They  '  ked  if  Riarni  thought  this  was  Greenland.     He 
said  he  thought  it  no  more  Greenland  than  the  first ;  "for  tlie  gl.ic.ers 
are  very  huge,  as  they  say,  in  Greenland."    They  soon  nearcd  the  land 
and  saw  it  was  Hat  land  and  overgrown  with  wood.    Then  the  fair  wind 
fell      Tlien  tlie  sailors  said  that  it  seemed  prudent  to  them  to  land  there ; 
but  Biarni  would  not.     They  thought  they  needed  both  wood  and  water. 
"  Of  neither  are  you  in  want,"  said  Biarni ;  but  lie  got  some  hard  speeches 
for  that  from  his  sailors.     He  bade  them  hoist  sail,  and  so  they  did  ;  and 
they  turned  the  bows  from  the  land,  and  sailed  out  to  sea  with  a  west- 
southwest  wind  three  days,  and  saw  a  third  land  ;   but  that  land  was 
bi.rh,  mountainous,  and  covered  with  glaciers.     They  asked  then  1   Biarn. 
wmild  put  ashore  there,  but  he  said  he  would  not ;  "  for  this  land  seems 
to  me  not  very  promising."     They  did  not  lower  their  sails,  but  he  d  on 
along   this   land,  and  saw  that  it  was   an   island  ;    but   they  turned  the 
Stern  to  the  land,  and  sailed  seawards  with  the  same  fair  wind,     liut  the 
wind  rose,  and  Biarni  bade  them  shorten  sail  and  not  to  carry  more 
than  their  ship  and  tackle  would  bear.     They  sailed  now  four  days, 
then  saw  they  land  the  fourth.    Then  they  asked  Biarn.  whether  he 
thou-ht  that  was  Greenland  or  not.     Biarni  answered,  "  That  is  likcst  to 
what"is  said  to  me  of  Greenland,  and  we  will  put  ashore."     So  they  did, 
and  landed   under  a  certain  ness  [cape]  at  evening  of  the  day.     And 
there  was  a  boat  at  the  ness  ;  and  there  lived  Herjulf,  the  father  of 
Biarni,  on  this  ness  ;  and  from  him  has  the  ness  t.aken  its  name,  and  is 
since  called  '  Herjulfsnoss.'     Now  fared  Biarni  to  his  father,  and  gave 
up  sailing,  and  was  with  his  father  whilst  llerjidf  lived,  and  afterwards 
lived  there  after  his  father." 

1  Or  bound  (htmr):  namely,  rc.-idy,  -  as  «c  s.iy  a  sbii)  is  " bound  "  for  London. 
*  Ok  letu  skaut  horfa  a  land. 


I07 

Eirek  the  Red,  the  leader  of  the  colony,  was  still  looked 
upon  as  its  head;  and  Biarni  once  having  paid  him  a 
visit,  and  being  Tvell  received,  the  conversation  fell  upon 
his  adventures  and  his  discoveries  of  unknown  lands. 
All  thought  13iarni  had  shown  very  little  curiosity  in  not 
making  further  explorations.  There  was  much  talk  about 
voyages  of  discovery ;  and  Leif,  the  eldest  of  Eirek's  three 
sons,  resolved  to  see  this  newly  discovered  country.  Ac- 
cordingly he  paid  Biarni  a  visit,  bought  his  vessel  of  him, 
and  engaged  a  crew. 

He  now  ei.'dcavored  to  persuade  his  father  to  accom- 
pany him,  and  after  some  trouble  succeeded.  But  the  old 
man,  on  the  way  to  the  vessel,  fell  from  his  horse  and  in- 
jured his  foot.  Thereupon  he  said,  "  It  is  not  fated  that 
I  should  discover  more  countries  than  those  we  now  in- 
habit, and  we  can  now  no  longer  fare  all  together."  So 
he  returned  home ;  but  Leif  with  his  companions,  thirty- 
five  in  all,  set  sail. 

(A.  I).  999)  First  they  found  the  land  which  Biarni  had  found 
last.  Then  sailed  they  to  tlie  land  and  cast  anchor,  and  put  off  a 
boat  and  went  ashore,  and  saw  there  no  grass.  Mickle  glaciers  were 
over  all  the  higher  parts  ;  but  it  was  like  a  plain  of  rock  from  the  gla- 
ciers to  the  sea,  and  it  seemed  to  them  that  the  land  \v.as  good  for  noth- 
ing. Then  s.-iid  Leif,  "  We  have  not  done  about  this  land  like  Biarni, 
not  to  go  upon  it ;  now  I  will  give  a  name  to  the  land  and  call  it  '  Hel- 
luland'"  [jlttt-sttmc  /ii'iJ].  Then  they  went  to  their  ship.  After  that 
they  sailed  into  the  sea,  and  found  another  land ;  sailed  up  to  it  and 
cast  anchor,  then  put  off  a  boat  and  went  ashore.  This  land  was  flat 
and  covered  with  wood  and  broad  white  sands  wherever  they  went;  and 
the  shore  was  low.  Then  said  Leif,  "  From  its  make  shall  a  name  be 
given  to  this  land,  and  it  shall  be  called  '  Markland '  "  [ri'Cix/ /,?«,/].  Then 
they  went  quickly  down  to  the  vessel.  Now  they  sailed  thence  into  the 
sea  with  a  northeast  wind,  and  were  out  two  days  before  tliey  saw  land  ; 
and  they  sailed  to  land,  and  came  to  an  i..land  that  lay  north  of  the 


loS 

land  ;  and  they  went  onto  it  and  looked  about  thi;ni  in  good  weather, 
and  found  that  dew  lay  upon  the  grass  ;  and  that  happened  that  they 
put  their  hands  in  the  dew  and  brought  it  to  their  mouths,  anil  they 
thought  they  had  never  known  anything  so  sweet  as  that  was.'  Then 
they  went  to  their  ship  and  sailed  into  that  sound  that  lay  between  that 
island  and  a  ncss  wiiich  went  northward  from  the  land,  and  then  steered 
westward  past  the  ness.  There  were  great  shoals  at  elib-lide,  and  their 
vessel  stood  up,  and  it  was  far  to  see  from  the  shij)  to  the  sea.  Hut 
they  were  so  curious  to  fare  to  the  land  that  they  could  not  bear  to  bide 
till  the  sea  came  under  their  ship,  and  ran  ashore  where  a  river  flows 
out  from  a  lake,  liut  when  the  sea  came  under  their  ship,  then  took 
they  the  boat  and  rowed  to  the  ship,  and  took  it  tip  into  the  river,  and 
then  into  the  lake,  and  there  cast  anchor,  and  bore  from  the  shij)  their 
skin  cots  and  made  there  booths. 

Afterw.irds  they  took  counsel  to  st.iy  there  that  winter,  and  made 
there  great  houses.  There  was  no  scarcity  of  salmon  in  the  rivers  and 
lakes,  and  laiger  salmon  than  they  had  before  seen.  There  was  the 
land  so  good,  as  it  seemed  to  them,  that  no  cattle  would  want  fodder 
for  the  winter.  There  came  no  frost  in  the  winter,  and  little  did  the 
grass  fall  off  there.  Day  and  night  were  more  equal  there  than  in 
Greenland  or  Iceland  ;  the  sun  had  there  cykliirsliul  and  (/,ti;miihistfii/''  on 
the  shortest  day.  liut  when  they  had  ended  their  house-building,  then 
said  Leif  to  his  companions,  '•  Now  let  our  company  be  divided  into  two 
parts,  and  the  l.md  kenned  ;  and  one  half  of  the  people  shall  be  at  the 
house  at  home,  but  tlie  other  half  shall  ken  the  land,  and  fare  not  fur- 
ther than  that  they  may  come  home  at  evening;  and  they  shall  not 
separate."  Now  so  they  did  one  time.  Leif  changed  about,  so  that  he 
went  with  them  [one  day]  and  [the  next]  was  at  home  at  the  house. 
Leif  was  a  mickle  man  and  stout,  most  noble  to  see,  a  wise  man  and 
moderate  in  all  things. 


L(i/  the  Lucky  Found  Men  on  a  Skerry  at  Sea. 

One  evening  it  chanced  that  a  man  was  wanting  of  their  people, 
and  this  was  Tyrker,  the  Southerner.*     Leif  took   this  very  ill;  for 

1  rrobaWy  tlic  soc;illcdlioney-(!ew,  — a  sweet  subst.ince  ileposiicd  on  Itic  pLints 
by  certain  insects  (aphides),  which  often  attracts  swarms  of  anls  and  Hies  to  rose- 
bushes infested  by  them.     (See  last  hne  of  page  9;.) 

'  D.v^malistiitl  w.as  half  past  seven  A.M.,  —  the  hour  of  sunrise  in  the  south  of  Ice- 
land on  the  first  day  of  winter  (October  17).  F.yktanlad  was  ihc  period  fixed  (in 
the  laws)  as  ihe  end  of  the  natural  day;  namely,  haU-p.asI  fc.ur  I'M.  —  Antiqiiitates 
AmerUanae,  p.  .1  \^. 

•  That  is,  the  Gcrnian. 


log 

Tyrkcr  had  been  long  wilh  his  parents,  and  loved  I.eif  mnch  in  his 
childiinod.     Leif  now  chid  his  people  siiarpiy,  and  made  ready  to  fare 
forth  to  seel<  iiim,  and  twidve  men  with  iiini.     lint  when  they  had  gone 
a  little  way,  there  canie  'I'yrker  to  meet  them,  and  was  joyfully  received. 
I,eif  found  at  once  that  his  old  friend  was  somewhat  out  of  his  mind  ; 
he  was  bustling  and  iinstcady-eyed,  freckled  in  face,  little  and  wizened 
in  growth,  but  a  man  of  skill  in  all  art.     Then  said  J.eif  to  him,  "  Why 
wert  thou  so  late,  my  fosterer,  and  separated  from  the  party .' "     He 
talked  at  first  a  long  while  in  German,  and  rolled  many  ways  his  eyes 
and  twisted  his  face  ;  but  they  skilled  not  what  he  said.     He  said  then 
in  Norse  after  a  time  :  "  I  went  not  very  far,  but  I  have  great  news  to 
tell ;  I  have  found  grapevines  and  grapes."     "  Can  that  be  true,  my  fos- 
terer?"  quoth  Leif.    "  Surely  it  is  true,"  quoth  he,  "  for  I  was  brought  up 
where  there  is  no  want  of  grape-vines  or  grapes."     Then  they  slept  for 
the  night,  but  in  the  morning  Leif  said  to  his  sailors:  "Now  we  shall 
have  two  iobs  ;  each  day  we  will  either  gather  grapes  or  new  grape- 
vines, and  tell  trees, —  so  there  will  be  a  cargo  for  my  ship;"  and  that 
was  the  counsel  taken.     It  is  said  that  their  long  boat  was  filled  with 
grapes.     Now  was  hewn  a  cargo  for  the  ship ;  and  when  spring  came 
they  got  ready  and  sailed  off ;  and  Leif  gave  a  name  to  the  land  after 
its  sort,  and  callcil  it  "Vinland"  [rciii,--/,vui].     They  sailed  then  after- 
wards into  the  sea,  and  had  a  fair  wind  until  they  saw  Greenland  and 
the  fells  under  the  glaciers.     Then  a  man  took  the  word,  and  said  to 
Leif,   "  Why  stecrest  thou  the  ship  so  close  to  the  wind  ? "     Leif  an- 
swered, "  I  look  to  my  steering  and  to  something  more  ;  and  what  see  ye 
remarkable?"     They  said  they  saw  nothing  that  seemed  remarkable. 
"  I  know  not,"  said  Leif,  "whether  I  see  a  ship  or  a  rock."     Now  they 
looked,  and  said  it  was  a  rock.     I!ut  he  s.aw  further  than  they,  and  saw 
men  on  the  rock.     "  Now  we  must  bile  into  the  wind  "  {I'dtiin  undir  vt' 
dnt\  said  I^eif,  "  so  that  we  may  near  them  if  they  are  in  need  of  our 
aid,  and  it  is  needful  to  help  them  ;  but  if  so  be  it  that  they  are  not 
peaceably  disposed,  all  the  strength  is  on  our  side  and  not  on  theirs." 
Now  they  came  close  to  the  rock,  and  furled  their  sail  and  cast  anchor, 
and  put  out  another  little  boat  which  they  had  with  them.     Then  asked 
Tyrker,  Who  rode   before   them  [who  was  their  leader]  ?     He  said  he 
was  named  Thorir,  and  that  he  was  a  Norseman  of  kin.     "  l!ut  what  is 
thy  name  ? "     Leif  told  his  name.     "  .Art  thou  son  of  Eirek  the  Red,  of 
lirattahlid  ? "  said  he.    Leif  said  it  was  so.    "  Now  will  I,"  said  Leif,  "bid 
you  all  to  my  ship,  and  as  many  of  the  goods  as  the  ship  will  carry." 
They  were  thankful  for  the  chance,  and  sailed  to  Kircksfnth  wilh  the 
cargo  until  they  came  to  Brattahlid,  and  then  unloaded  the  ship.    After- 
wards Leif  bade  Thorir  to  stay  with  him,  and  also  Gudrid  his  wife,  and 


^ 


no 


\ 


three  other  men,  and  got  lodgings  for  the  other  sailors,  — both  Thorir's 
and  his  own  fellows.  Leif  touk  iKteen  men  from  the  rock,  .\fler  th.it 
he  was  called  Leif  the  Lucky.  Leif  was  now  both  well  to  do  and  hon- 
ored. Th.it  winter  there  came  a  great  sickness  among  Thorir's  people, 
and  carried  ofT  Thorir  and  many  of  his  people.  Tiiis  winter  died  also 
Eirek  the  Red. 

Now  there  was  a  great  talk  about  Leif's  Vinland  voyage  ;  and 
Thorvald,  his  brother,  thought  the  land  had  been  too  little  explored. 
Then  said  Leif  to  Thorvald,  "Thou  shalt  go  with  my  ship,  brother,  if 
thou  wilt,  to  Vinland  ;  but  1  want  that  the  ship  should  go  lust  after  the 
wood  that  Thorir  had  on  the  rock ; "  and  so  w.is  done. 


ThorvalJ  Farts  to  Vinland. 

Now  Thorvald   made   ready  for  this  voyage  with   thirty  men,  with 
the  counsel  thereon  of  Leif,  his  brother.     Then  they  fitted  out  their  ship 
and    bore  out  to  sea  [a.u.   1002];   and   there  is  nothing  told  of  their 
voyage  before  they  came  to  Vinland  to  Leif's  booths ;  and  they  laid  up 
their  ship  and  dwelt  in  peace  tiiere  that  winter,  and  caught  fish  for  their 
meat.     But  in  the  spring  Thorvald  said  they  would  get  ready  their  ship, 
and  send  their  longboat  and  some  men  with  it  along  to  the  westward  of 
the  land,  and  explore  it  during  the  summer.    The  land  seemed  to  them 
fair  and  wooded,  and  narrow  between  the  woods  and  the  sea,  and  of 
white  sand.    There  were  many  islands  and  great  shoals.    They  found 
neither  man's  abode  nor  beasts  ;'  but  on  an  island  to  the  wcstw.ird  they 
found  a  corn-shed  of  wood.     More  works  of  men  they  found   not ;  and 
they  went  back,  and  came  to  Leif's  booths  in  the  f.dl.     IJut  the  next 
summer  fared  Thorvald  eastward  with  the  merchant-ship,  and  coasted 
to  the  northward.     Here  a  heavy  storm  arose  as  they  were  passing  one 
of  two  capes,  and  drove  them  up  there  and  broke  the  keel  under  the 
ship ;  and  they  dwelt  there  long,  and  mended  their  ship.     Then  said 
Thorvald  to  his  companions  ;  "  Now  will  I  that  we  raise  up  here  a  keel 
on  the  ness,  and  call  it  '  Kcelness; '  "  and  so  they  did.     After  that  they 
sailed  thence,  and  coasted  to  the  eastward,  and  into  the  mouths  of  the 
firths  that  were  nearest  to  them,  and  to  a  headland  that  stretched  out. 
This  was  all  covered  with  wood.     Here  they  brought  the  ship  into  har- 
bor and  shoved  a  bridge  onto  the  land,  and  Thorvald  went  ashore  with 
all  his  company.     He  said  then,  "  Here  it  is  fair,  and  here  would  I  like 
to  raise  my  dwellings."     They  went  then  to  the  ship,  and  saw  upon  the 
sands  within  the  headland  three  heights ;   and  they  went  thither  and 
'  licamisli  s.ijs  "  neither  dwellings  of  men  or  beasts." 


i 


Ill 


'i 


saw  there  three  skin  boats,  and  three  men  under  each.  Then  they  di- 
vided their  pcoiile,  and  laid  hands  on  them  ail,  except  one  that  got  off 
with  his  boat.  'I'licy  killed  these  eit;ht,  and  went  llien  back  to  the 
headland  and  looked  about  them  there,  and  saw  in  the  tirth  some 
hLM;;hts,  and  thought  they  were  dwellings.  After  that  there  came  a 
he.aviness  on  them  so  great  that  tliey  could  not  keep  awake,  and  all 
slumbered,  'flicn  came  a  call  above  lliem  so  that  they  all  awoke. 
'I'luis  said  the  call :  "  Awake,  Thorvalil,  and  all  thy  company,  if  thou 
wilt  keep  thy  life  ;  and  fare  thou  to  thy  ship,  and  all  thy  men,  and  fare 
from  the  land  of  the  quickest "  [a  cry,  probably,  from  one  of  Leif's  men 
who  had  identified  himself  with  the  Indians  and  did  not  return  to 
Greenland].  Then  came  from  within  the  firth  innumerable  skin  boats, 
and  made  toward  them.  Thorvald  said  then,  "  We  will  set  up  our  battle- 
shields,  and  guard  ourselves  the  best  we  can,  but  fight  little  .against 
them."  So  they  did  ;  and  the  Skraelings  shot  at  them  for  a  while,  but 
then  fled  each  as  fast  as  he  could.  Then  Thorvald  .asked  his  men  if 
any  of  them  was  hurt ;  they  said  they  were  not  hurt.  "  I  have  got  a 
hurt  under  the  arm,"  said  he;  "for  an  arrow  flew  between  the  bulwarks 
and  the  shield  under  my  arm,  and  here  is  the  arrow,  and  that  will  be 
my  death.  Now  I  counsel  that  ye  make  ready  as  quickly  as  may  be  to 
return  ;  but  ye  shall  bear  me  to  the  headland  which  I  thought  the  likeli- 
est place  to  build.  It  may  be  it  was  a  true  word  I  spoke,  that  I  should 
dwell  there  for  a  time.  There  ye  shall  bury  me,  and  set  crosses  at  my 
head  and  feet,  and  call  it  'Krossanes'  henceforth."  Greenland  was 
then  Christianized,  but  Eirek  the  Red  h.id  died  before  Christianity 
came  thither.  Now  Thorvald  died ;  but  they  did  everything  according 
as  he  had  said,  and  then  went  and  found  their  companions  and  told 
each  other  the  news  they  had  to  tell,  and  lived  there  that  winter  and 
gathered  grapes  and  vines  for  loading  the  ship.  Then  in  the  spring 
they  made  ready  to  sail  for  Greenland,  and  came  with  their  ship  to 
Eireksfirlh,  and  had  great  tidings  to  tell  to  Leif. 

In  the  meanwhile  Thorstein,  Eirck's  third  son,  had  mar- 
ried Gudrid,  the  widow  of  the  Norwegian  Thorir,  whom 
Leif  had  rescued  from  tlie  rock.  When  the  news  of  his 
brother's  death  arrived,  Thorstein  resolved  to  go  after 
Thorvald's  dead  body,  in  order  to  give  it  a  Christian 
burial.  Accordingly  he  set  off ;  but  after  driving  about 
the  whole  summer  unsuccessfully,  he  was  obliged  to  put 


113 


I 


i«  at  the  western  settlement  of  Greenland,  where  they 
remained  that  winter.  Here  Thorstein  and  many  of  his 
men  died  of  a  pestilence,  and  dudrid  returned  to  Lcif  at 
the  eastern  settlement.  This  summer  a  rich  Norwegian, 
named  Thoifm  Kalsofni,  came  to  (ireenland  and  stayed 
at  Leif's  hoii.se,  where  he  fell  in  love  with  (uidrid  and 
married  her.  There  being  still  a  great  talk  about  Vin- 
land,  Thorfin  was  persuaded  to  undertake  a  voyage  thither, 
—  which  he  did,  taking  with  him  his  wife  and  a  company 
of  si.xty  men  and  five  women '  (a.  d.  1007). 

"This  aj;rcement  m.idi;  Karl.scfiii  and  his  seamen,  lliat  tliey  shnuiil 
iiavc  evcn-li.imlctl  all  liiat  iht-y  sliouUI  get  in  the  way  of  {,'ootls.  I  hey 
had  with  them  all  sorts  of  cattle,  as  they  tlu)U);ht  to  settle  there  if  they 
liked.  K.ulscfni  begjjed  Lcif  for  his  hciise  in  Vinland  ;  but  ho  said  he 
would  lend  him  the  house,  but  not  ^Wc  it.  Then  they  bore  out  to  sea 
with  the  ship  and  came  to  Leif's  booths  hale  and  whole,  and  lanile<l 
there  their  cattle.  There  soon  came  into  their  hands  a  great  and  good 
prize  ;  for  a  whale  was  driven  ashore,  both  great  and  good.  Then  they 
went  to  c\it  up  the  whale,  and  had  no  scar<  ity  of  food.  The  cattle  went 
up  into  the  country,  and  it  soon  happened  that  the  male  cattle  became 
wild  and  unruly.  They  had  with  them  a  bull.  Karlseini  had  wood 
felled  .and  brought  to  the  ship,  and  had  the  wooil  piled  on  the  clilT  to 
dry.  They  had  all  the  good  things  of  the  country,  both  of  grapes  and 
of  all  sorts  of  game  and  other  things.  .After  the  first  winter  came 
the  summer  ;  then  they  saw  appear  the  Skraelings,  and  there  came  from 
out  the  wood  a  great  number  of  men.  Near  by  were  their  neat-cattle  ; 
and  the  bull  took  to  bellowing  [lok  at  bclja],  and  roared  loudly  ; 
where.it  the  Skraelings  were  frightened,  and  ran  oil  with  their  bundles. 
These  were  furs,  and  sable-skins,  and  skin-wares  of  all  kinds.  And 
they  turned  towards  Karlsefni's  booths,  and  wanted  to  get  into  the 
house,  but  Karlscfni  had  the  doors  guarded.  Neitiier  party  under- 
stood the  other's  langu.age.  Then  the  Skraelings  took  down  their  bags 
and  opened  them  and  oiTercd  them  for  sale,  and  wanted  above  all 
to  have  weapons  for  them,     lint  K.irlsefni  fotb.ide  them  to  sell  weapons. 

'  Beamish  and  Smith  give  the  tol^il  nuinl)er  ifx3.  Vijifiisson  tr.->nsl.itcs  the  passage 
"/,>«r  1(111  I'Jtf  III/  second  htindrid."  Icelandic  rruse-rcader,  Notes  lu  Erik's  Saga 
Kamla,  1879,  p.  381. 


"3 

He  look  this  plan  :  he  bade  the  wc.imn  bring  out  their  dairy  stuff'  for 
them  ;  and  so  soon  as  tluy  saw  this  thty  wouiti  have  that  and  nothing' 
else.    Now  this  was  the  way  the  Skraclings  traded,  —  they  bore  of!  their 
wares  in  their  stomachs  ;  liut  Karlstfni  and  his  companions  had  their 
bags  and  skin  wares,  and  so  liiey  parted.     Now  hereof  is  this  to  say, 
that  Karlsefni  had  posts  driven  stron-ly  round  about  iiis  l)ooths,  and 
made  all  complete.     At  this  time  Oudrid,  tiie  wife  of  Karlsefni,  bore  a 
man-chiUl,  and  he  was  called  Snorri.     In  the  beginning  of  the  next 
winter  the  .Skr:vliuHs  came  to  them  again,  and  were  many  more  than  be- 
fore,  and  they  had  the  same  wares  as  before.    Then  Karlsefni  said  to  the 
wonien,  "  Now  bring  forth  the  same  food  that  was  most  liked  before, 
and  no  other."     And  when  they  saw  it  they  cast  their  bundles  in  over 
the  fence.  .  .  .  (Uut  one  of  them  being  killed  by  one  of  Karlsefni's 
men,  they  all  lied  in  haste  and  left  their  garments  an<l  wares  behind.) 
"Nowl   think  wc  need  a  good  counsel,"  said  Karlsefni,  "for  I  think 
they  will  come  for  the  third  time  in  anger  and  with  many  men.     Now 
we  must  do  this :  ten  men  must  go  out  to  that  ness  and  show  themselves 
there  ;  Init  another  p.irty  must  go  into  the  wood  and  hew  a  place  clear 
for  our  neat-catlle,  when  tlu'  foe  shall  come  from  the  wood.     And  we 
must  take  tlie  bull  and  let  him  go  before  us."     liut  thus  it  was  with  the 
place  where  they  thought  to  meet,  that  a  lake  was  on  one  side  and  the 
wood  on  the  other.     Now  it  was  done  as  Karlsefni  liad  said.     Now 
came  the  Skraclings  to  the  pl.icc  where  Karlsefni  had  thought  should  be 
the  battle.     And  now  tlu  re  was  a  battle,  and  many  of  the  Skraclings 
fell.    There  was  one  large  and  handsome  man   among  the  Skraelings, 
and   Karlsefni   thought  he  might  be  their  leader.     Now  one  of  the 
Skr.iclings  had  taken  up  an  axe  and  looked  at  it  awhile,  and  struck  .at 
one  of  his  fellows  and  hit  him, —  whereupon  he  fell  dead      Then  the 
large  man  took  the  axe  and  looked  at  it  awhile  and  threw  it  into  the 
sea  as  far  as  he  could,     liut  after  that  they  (led  to  the  wood,  each  as 
fast  as  he  couUl  ;  and  thus  ended  the  strife.     Karlsefni  and  his  com- 
panions were  there  ,ill  that  winter ;  but  in  the  spring  Karlsefni  said  he 
would   stay  there  no  longer,  and  would  fare  to  Creenland.     Now  they 
made  ready  for  the  voyage,  and  bare   thence  nuich  goods  ;  namely, 
grape-vines  and  grapes  and  skin-w.ares.     Now  they  sailed  into  the  sea 
ami  came  home  with  their  ship  to  Eireksfirth,  and  were  there  that 

winter.  , .  ,     ,    ■„ 

>  Bunyt,  /,;(^/i</«i.J,  — anything  made  of  milk. 


